Silver Lining: My Way
by Darien Fawkes
Summary: A Silver Ranger turns up on Earth, but will he be everything the Rangers expect? Or will he bring a whole lot more questions?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Here it is! My version of the Silver Ranger's arrival! Note that I'm going to be playing a little loose and light with the episodes. Hope you all enjoy it!

**Legal: **I do not own Power Rangers or the associated names, places, characters, events etc. Anything not associated with these rights is to be presumed to be purely the creation of the author.

**Rating: **T – May be some adult themes and languages.

Far away, well beyond the reaches of our solar system, a man in a long, flowing coat, with a huge, feathery boa and a large, floppy black hat stood on the entrance ramp to his space ship, with a large smile plastered on his face. His thin, dark moustashe looked slightly crooked on his lip with his smirk as he looked over the city from the entrance to his ship.

KO 35 was not a world that hadn't seen war. It had been under siege once before, under the orders of the Overlord, Dark Spectre, but that was a lifetime ago. Many of the younger citizens had never known real war, real destructive malice, real evil like this. In the fifteen years since the Space Rangers had fought their final battle on the planet's surface, they had been pretty much at peace ever since. That, of course, had its disadvantages. By the looks of the pitiful resistance the planet put up to his forces, it seemed like they were no longer able to repel the ferocity of an invasion like this.

The capital city, Elaria, was a beautiful place...at least...it was when it wasn't crumbling and burning to the ground. Skyscrapers of glittering white stone, shining steel and glass reached up into the sky to dizzying heights. The streets were lined with trees and plants that were maintained day and night by the authorities, and pristine streets that ordinarily never showed the slightest hint of mess or litter. Right now though, none of that mattered. The air was thick, heavy, and filled with the stench of burning, and distant cries for help and alarms. The buildings were crumbling and burning, and wherever he could see people, they were either running for their lives, or engaged in a futile battle with his forces, being cut down where they stood.

A dark shape appeared in the sky, before soaring towards him fast. As it came closer, it seemed more like it was falling than it was flying, given the speed of its descent. He barely flinched as the massive, hulking form of his henchman Kolo landed near him, sending up chunks of tarmac as he slammed into the ground on one knee. His cymbals were clipped to his armour. His right hand, which was larger than a bowling ball when clenched into a fist, was closed tightly, like it was holding onto something of such value, the creature valued it far more than its own life. An unconscious form was draped lifelessly over his left shoulder, being held there with one hand.

Lafitte smiled as he saw Kolo arrive. He had been sent into the city on an important mission, one that was more important than anything...one they still had to be paid for! His employer had insisted that he would only get paid upon proof that he had returned with what he was looking for. He strolled out to his henchman as some of his puppet Rangers arrived, providing covering fire as they made their way back to his ship. His forces were small, but had impressive power. As the Alien Rangers and Galaxy Rangers approached, maintaining a perimeter, his other puppets dealt with the few remnants of the security forces. Lafitte approached slowly, chuckling as he saw the body on Kolo's shoulder. It hung lifelessly, and the head was covered in thick, dark blood, the hair matted to the scalp. Lafitte grabbed the hair, yanking back the head to look into the face of a Hispanic man.

"And you thought this planet would be a better place to live than Earth Carlos." He taunted the unconscious former Ranger. "I suppose right about now, you and your team are missing the paparazzi."

He looked to Kolo and sighed.

"I really don't think we need souvenirs do you?" He asked. Kolo just grabbed Carlos' jacket in one hand, and with a grunt, threw him several feet, where he landed in a heap on the ground. Lafitte just held out a hand.

"I presume you have something for me?" He asked. Kolo just dropped the five Space Ranger keys into Lafitte's outstretched hand. He lifted up his trumpet, and sounded a note, signalling to his Ranger puppets that he was indeed finished with this world. They all returned, each of them turning back into keys as they approached him. Lafitte and Kolo turned and walked onto the ship, the ramp closing behind them. Before long, they were blasting off, leaving KO 35 far behind to pick up the pieces. Lafitte was confident they would rebuild, and he knew that their defenders would recover in time, he was not being paid to end lives or destroy the planet. All he was there to do was collect the keys.

He opened up a communications link as Kolo went to the bridge, holding his communicator to his ear.

"It is done." He stated with a smile. "No, it was no more trouble than I would have expected. What would you like me to do now?"

He listened with interest and nodded in understanding.

"Of course, I will return to Earth as you wish." Lafitte then hung up, looking to the Ranger Keys. "This is the part I always look forward to. Pay day!"

Meanwhile, back on Earth, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, hidden by their cloaking technology and cloud cover, the Red Galleon was coasting, waiting on the next signs of The Armada's forces.

Although they had been spending the last couple of months traversing the globe in search of Ranger keys, following cryptic clues from their robotic parrot companion Tensou, the last clue was somewhat less helpful than usual. In fact, it wasn't really a clue at all. However, for a clue that didn't really give them any indication of where to go, they were surprisingly upbeat and cheerful. The last clue they had received hadn't been about a Ranger key, but had been an indication that soon they would be getting a sixth Ranger.

As Gia came into the main room, carrying a coffee mug, she chuckled as she saw Jake frantically vacuuming the ship. The rest of the guys were also cleaning up, dusting and straightening the place out. It wasn't as though they were habitually or deliberately messy, but five teenagers living on a ship did lead to a certain level of mess.

"Guys, seriously it's not like the Pope is coming or anything." She reminded them.

"Come on Gia, you heard Tensou!" Noah said as he fluffed up a pillow on the couch. "Jordan's coming home!"

"I know, but seriously...it's JORDAN!" She reminded them. "It's not like we don't know the guy...or he's that important or anything...seriously, we all saw what his room was like back home!"

"It's not like we couldn't have done with cleaning up anyway." Troy told her.

"Yeah, besides, you can deny it all you want. We all know you missed him as well." Emma stated as she put some things away into storage. Gia would deny it, she and Jordan had always loved teasing and taunting each other back in Harwood, but that was just the nature of their friendship. Deep down, they both really cared about each other, but many seeing them bicker would have thought otherwise. Gia just smiled as she sat down.

"OK, I guess it'll be good to see the big lug." She admitted. Although he had appeared to them a few times in projections, but none of them had seen him in the flesh since the last battle on Harwood beach, when he had disappeared. Gosei had taken him to the Library before his own disappearance. Jordan had told them he had been taken there for special studies, which had resulted in Jordan creating their new powers and zords. That was when he had revealed that Jordan was, in fact, his son, and was half-Eltarian. "I suppose it would be interesting to see his new look in person."

"Admit it Gia, you missed him as much as we did." Jake pressed on as he started to wind up the power cable to the vacuum cleaner.

"Yeah, you don't have to act in front of us." Noah told her.

"Besides, I think you lost all your 'tough girl' cred when you had your turn in the Mr Brainfreeze outfit." Emma teased her.

"Guys, it is WAY too early for all this." She grumbled.

"Then just admit it. You missed him." Troy chipped in, shoving her gently. Gia just groaned.

"Alright, fine, I'm looking forward to seeing him!" Gia rushed out. "There, I said it are you happy?"

"Ecstatic." Noah told her. "Now, will you do something to help?"

Gia just rolled her eyes as she got off the couch and started to help them clean up, secretly just as thrilled as the rest by the thought that soon, they'd be getting their good friend back on the team!

Back on his ship, The Fancy, Lafitte was sitting at his dining table, lined with antique tableware. Either side of his place setting was an assortment of cutlery of all shapes and sizes, made from precious metals, the handles encrusted with jewels. By his massive, golden chalice, also bearing gems of obscene size, were fifteen of his Ranger keys, the ones he had been paid to collect from Aquitar, Miranoi and KO35. He held the Red Space Ranger Key, inspecting it with a satisfied smile. Although he was being paid handsomely for the job, having this power, power his employer had promised him he could keep for himself, was a reward he couldn't place a value on. He had already lost fifteen of his puppets to the Rangers, but with these new keys, he was confident he could get them back with interest. He looked up as Kolo came into the room, carrying a large serving platter. He laid it down before him, taking off the golden, jewelled cloche revealing the meal inside. Lafitte smiled to see the roast dinner before him, looking up to where the Sentinel Knight was waiting.

"You've outdone yourself as usual." He complimented his puppet. The Sentinel Knight bowed his head, before leaving Lafitte to his meal. He started to stuff a lace napkin into the collar of his shirt, before reaching for a bottle of wine, pouring it into his goblet.

From a hiding place behind a statue Lafitte had taken from a world long ago, a stranger appeared, crouching down and beginning to sneak over slowly. He was a tall man, close to six feet, and heavily muscled, like someone who had known years of hard labour. His blonde hair was filthy, and straggly, sticking out wildly in all directions. He had grey eyes that were as cold as flint. He had a dull, hammered metal bracelet on his left wrist, and was wearing rough jeans and a dull, grey shirt. He slowly stalked Lafitte as his attention was taken up by the meal.

The stranger gripped a pole-arm weapon in his left hand, his grip tightening around it. He had stowed away on The Fancy with only one goal in mind. His heard pounded as he crossed the couple of feet between him and Lafitte's throne, each step feeling like a mile as he neared to completing his mission.

As Lafitte finished pouring, the stranger was almost right behind him. He picked up his goblet, and took a long swig, but as he was putting it down, he paused. A reflection on the polished surface of the chalice revealed the intruder. He placed the goblet down and sighed.

"It's rude to turn up to dinner unannounced." Lafitte told him in an exasperated tone. The intruder let out a huge yell, and jumped into the air, driving his blade towards Lafitte's exposed back. The Privateer threw himself aside just as the pole arm was rammed through the back of the chair. Kolo came storming back into the room, smashing the intruder across the room with one of his cymbals. Lafitte just looked to the pole-arm weapon impaling his chair, right where he had been sitting, it's aim clearly intent on piercing his heart.

"Do you know what that chair is worth?" He taunted the stranger. As the man in grey flicked up onto his feet, Lafitte finally got a good look at him. He smiled. "You? Well, it has been a while. Tell me, how did you escape...?"

The intruder let out a huge, impassioned yell as he lunged for Lafitte, pulling out a device that looked like a cell phone, and a Ranger key in the other hand. In a flash of light, he transformed into a Silver Corsair Ranger. He had a long-barrelled blaster in his hand, which he fired directly at Lafitte. Kolo quickly leapt between them, using his cymbals to block the blasts, sending them ricocheting around the room, destroying many of the treasures Lafitte surrounded himself with.

The Silver Ranger converted his blaster into a trident, rushing at Kolo with murderous intent. The massive gorilla blocked the blow, which rebounded off his armour harmlessly. The Silver Ranger took a hard shot in response. When he landed, it felt like all his bones had jumped from their sockets from the force of the hulking gorilla's blow.

"I keep telling you, it was nothing personal! It was just business!" Lafitte told him in a casual tone. "There's no need to take it to heart like this."

"That's easy for you to say!" The Silver Ranger responded. Lafitte blew his trumpet, at which a number of his Ranger puppets appeared. The Silver Ranger saw he was hopelessly outmanned, and relaxed his grip on his trident.

"I'm glad to see you finally seeing sense." Lafitte told him, extending a hand. "Now, I quite like the look of these impressive new powers you acquired. I'm sure my employer would pay handsomely for..."

Before he could finish, the Silver Ranger had noticed something. The other Ranger keys sitting by his place setting. He converted his trident back into blaster mode, firing some shots to pin down Lafitte and his cohorts. Lunging over the table, he snatched up the Alien, Space and Galaxy Ranger keys. Seeing this, Lafitte pulled out his own blaster, opening fire.

"No one steals from me!" He screamed as he fired. The Silver Ranger took the blasts in the chest, but fortunately the suit took the damage, saving his life. He activated his morpher, teleporting off the ship as Lafitte and his Ranger puppets moved to surround him.

"Where did he go?" He screamed. "He can't have gone far!"

Kolo just pointed out the window, at which Lafitte ran to see what he was pointing at. Lafitte felt his temper flaring up as he saw a ship beginning to fly away.

"The Free Joker?" She yelled. "He DARES to use my old ship against me? Blow him out of the sky!"

Over in the other ship, the Silver Ranger took the controls, de-morphing as he got into the pilot's seat. The Fancy had much more firepower than his own ship, and he knew that sticking around would only result in his destruction, something that would bring his own mission of revenge to a premature and messy end. He began making evasive manoeuvres as explosions went off all around him.

He started activating the controls for light-speed travel, plotting his escape route, but just as he fired up the engines, The Fancy got in a lucky shot, hitting one of his engines.

"No, no...don't quit on me now damn you!" The Silver Ranger growled in frustration as he punched in the last few commands. His ship sped up to light-speed, leaving The Fancy behind in its wake, saving him. However, it wasn't long before the on-board computers started blaring out warnings. Sparks flew past him as he struggled to maintain control.

"Engine failure imminent." The computer warned him.

"I know."

"Fuel chamber breach." The computer continued.

"Tell me something useful!" He barked in response.

"Hull integrity fifty three percent and falling." The computer continued.

"That's not exactly what I meant." He grumbled. As the ship came out of light-speed, entering our solar system at speed, he struggled to maintain control. He looked ahead to see the few Armada ships assembled just beyond Earth's moon.

"Great, that's all I need." He muttered, gunning the engines for all he was worth. He knew that he was risking a blow out, but with The Armada ahead of him, he was playing the odds. He could push the engines, risk a blow out and maybe die, or he could wait for Prince Vekar to see him, open fire and definitely die. Right now, a slim chance was better than nothing.

On The Armada command ship, Prince Vekar was sitting at his station with a meal in front of him. He no longer had his face bandaged up obnoxiously for a slight injury to his face, now he only had a small band-aid across the bridge of his nose, but he struggled with his fork, trying to use it to cut meat, since his other hand, the one he had used to hit Argus following his latest defeat was now in a cast. Despite what everyone else told him, he insisted he had broken it, and demanded a cast. No one dared to tell him that his fingers were only bruised, or that it was his fault in the first place for pounding on Argus' armour.

As some food flew off his plate as the meat slipped, scattering on the floor, Damaras just sighed, struggling not to laugh at the display.

"This is intolerable!" The Prince whined. "Lavira!"

"What is it your highness?" She asked as she got to his side. He pushed the plate towards her.

"Cut this up for me!" He demanded petulantly. She just took his knife and fork, and started to get to work on her menial task. Just then, there was a loud alarm, and flashing lights.

"What is it?" Prince Vekar screamed in a panic. "What's happening? Is it the Rangers?"

"It's a proximity alarm, a ship is approaching fast." Argus informed him. "Sensors show...it's one of ours!"

"It's going far too fast to be attempting to dock!" Damaras stated, pulling it up on the screen. He stared at it. "Its...it's the Free Joker!"

"The Free Joker? I thought we destroyed that ship!" Prince Vekar demanded.

"Uh...your highness?" Lavira stated warily. "It's...it's coming this way!"

The ship was smoking, and almost completely out of control. The Silver Ranger struggled to stop it slamming straight into The Armada Command Ship. The Free Joker streaked past so quickly that the whole bridge shook. The plate fell from Prince Vekar's table straight onto his lap.

"OW, OW, OW!" He screamed as he leapt up, dancing around like a lunatic. "It burns! It hurts so much!"

"Get the medic!" Lavira called to one of the X-borgs. "Shoot down that ship!"

"Oh, why does everything happen to me?" Prince Vekar whined as she grabbed a napkin, trying to clean him up as much as she could. "I want that ship destroyed!"

"It's on a collision course with Earth, moving much too fast to land safely." Argus informed him. "It will not be a problem much longer."

Back on the Red Galleon, the Rangers were putting the finishing touches on the cleaning when Gia just sighed.

"Isn't all of this kind of pointless?" Gia asked them.

"What?" Noah asked. "You want the place to be ready for when Jordan..."

"That's just it, did none of you remember Tensou didn't say exactly WHEN Jordan would turn up?" Gia asked. "Or where he would end up for that matter?"

"What do you mean?" Jake asked her.

"It's a big planet Jake!" Gia reminded them. "Not to mention Eltarians don't seem to have much of a sense of scale. When he saved us at the White House, Gosei sent us to St. Lucia for God's sake!"

"She has a point." Noah conceded. Just then, there was an alarm. They all rushed up onto the deck to see something streaking through the sky.

"What the hell is that?" Jake asked.

"It looks like a ship!" Troy answered. "And by the looks of it, that's not going to be a soft landing!"

"According to the computer, it looks like it's coming down in Paris!" Emma told them, checking a hand-set.

"Come on, let's go." Troy ordered them as they ran back below deck to track the new arrival.


	2. Silver Streak

**A/N: **Much of the next couple of chapters is going to take place in and around Paris, so there will be some necessity, obviously, for characters to speak French. While I DID study French, it has been many years since I did so, and so I am far from fluent, and I have had some mixed success with translation sites. Since I know at least one of my regular leaders IS fluent in French, and suspect more probably are, rather than embarrass myself I'm opting to instead write in English...though for ease of reference, if a line of speech is written _in italics _Then it is to be presumed the speaker is speaking in French.

The streets of Paris were starting to become quiet as it proceeded towards midday. Much like a large part of Europe, it was still relatively common in this part of the world for the midday period to be a time of rest. At one time especially, it wasn't uncommon for the average lunch break to last up to two hours! The midday sun was so hot in parts of the continent that a lot of people would go home from work to eat, have a short sleep, shower and change before returning to work for the rest of the day to avoid the warmest part of the day. In modern times it was less common, but on the whole, a lot of locals did avoid the streets whenever they could to avoid the worst of the midday heat.

The traffic was beginning to dissipate at the Champs-Elysees, aided by a police officer directing them for expediency. As he was waving on a line of traffic, he turned, just in time to see something in the sky. He strained his eyes to get a better look.

At first, it looked a little like a jet stream, only it seemed a little lower than he was used to seeing planes flying overhead. It also looked like the stream was darker, and a lot less even than a typical jet stream. If anything, it seemed to be billowing outwards instead of leaving a simple stream. He started to see an orange glow. He started to back up as he realised something else. It was coming closer...in fact...it was coming down straight for him!

"_Shit!_" He screamed as he realised what was happening, wildly gesturing to pedestrians and motorists. "_Everybody Run! It's coming this way!_"

Motorists abandoned their vehicles and ran screaming from the street, heading for cover. In his ship, the Silver Ranger struggled with his controls. He had piloted ships before, but rarely did he have to try and land a ship this badly damaged. He was coming in fast, and his controls were struggling to hold a good angle of descent. He was using all his strength just to try and level out.

By now, every alarm in the ship was blaring at him. He was going way to fast, his angle of descent was far too sharp, just about every system was starting to fail. All things considered, it was a lot like trying to steer a brick at over two hundred miles an hour. Sparks flew past him as he struggled with the controls.

"Damn it!" He growled. "Come on, I've made it this far!"

The ship streaked down, at which the proximity sensors added to the cacophonous choir of squealing alarms. He pulled up the nose just enough that by the time his burning ship hit the ground, it hit more like a stone skipping across water than a rock slamming into it and sinking. Metal screeched on concrete as his ship, the Free Joker skidded along the street, slamming through several cars as it headed towards the Arc de Triomphe. Fortunately for one of France's most famous monuments, friction finally got the better of momentum, and the ship came to a halt a few feet from the monument.

The police officers on duty started to break cover as they realised the destruction had come to an end. They approached the smoking wreckage of the ship. Its paint was scorched and scratched in many places, and it had a few dents, but for the most part it had remained intact. It didn't look anything like any plane they had ever seen. They had seen more than enough news reports to recognise an Armada ship, even if it had been repainted a different colour, and bore a different emblem.

"_Do you think any of them survived?_" One of the cops asked another.

"_It's still intact._" The other reminded him, pulling out his gun. The others did likewise as they approached the ship cautiously. "_Who knows what those aliens are capable of?_"

As they approached cautiously, keeping their guns at the ready, there was a jet of steam from the ship, and the hatch slid open. They all jumped in fright, taking up cover. As he hid behind a wrecked car, one of the cops could swear he saw a dark shape through the steam, something that looked vaguely like someone running away. Unable to risk firing though, in case he accidentally shot some unfortunate, panicking citizen, he had to let it go. Eventually the steam dissipated and he was able to see the ship, with the hatch lying open.

They approached slowly, cautiously getting to the entrance, and headed inside, covering the ship with his gun, only to find that it was empty.

"_Shit!_" He exclaimed. "_Whoever was in this ship must have run!_"

"_So what do we do?_" One of the other cops asked him. It wasn't as though France had seen much Ranger action over the years. While cities like Angel Grove, Ocean Bluff and Silver Hills all pretty much had a standing SOP for monster attacks, Paris really hadn't had any need to develop such a contingency.

"_I guess we call it a downed aircraft._" The other replied. The first just stared at him. "_Well? If you can think of something better, I'm all ears!_"

"_Alright, a downed aircraft it is._" He sighed, getting on the radio. "_Cordon off the area, and have a fire and ambulance crew sent to the Champs-Elysées._"

"_Better call NASADA while you're at it._" The first cop told him. "_Something tells me air traffic control isn't exactly equipped to deal with something like this._"

Meanwhile, in an alley not far from the area, the wild-haired stranger watched the cops starting to gesture citizens away. He saw them start to put up cordons around the Free Joker, and assumed they were law enforcement. Considering the fact that he had basically crash landed in the middle of a city, he could hardly blame them for being cautious. He knew his ship was out of commission anyway, so it wasn't as though it was any great loss. For now, he had to just let them take it.

He made his way out of the street, heading into a nearby shopping mall, looking around. It looked like he was fortunate. The people on this planet didn't seem to look too dissimilar to him. In fact, with the exception of a few looks he got from some, which he imagined was more down to his unkempt appearance than anything else; hardly anyone seemed to notice him at all. This would only make things easier.

He got to a news stand, and as he got there, he saw a glossy magazine with a picture on the cover that interested him. It was a group of warriors, all wearing outfits similar to his own morphed form, but in different colours, Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Pink. Since he had gotten his powers, he had a feeling that very little about his journey had been coincidental. His mission of revenge had taken a detour, one that he was sure was part of some larger plan he didn't yet understand.

He saw the words on the cover...Power Rangers. He had heard this term before, when he had receive his powers, and had them explained to him. He had heard there were others with similar powers. It seemed that he had found himself on the same planet as these others.

"_Hey, you've got to pay for that sir._" The man behind the counter said. The Silver Ranger just stared at him blankly. "_You pay for the magazine; you can read it all you want! Until then, put it back!_"

"I'm sorry, I don't understand." The Silver Ranger said in his heavily accented voice. The guy behind the counter rolled his eyes as he snatched the magazine off him.

"Tourists." He grunted in disdain. It wasn't as though he objected to tourists in his country, but he, like many, found it more than a little rude when people came to his country and didn't even attempt to speak his native language. There were, unfortunately, a lot of ignorant tourists who seemed to think that the whole world should accommodate them, change the way they did things just so they wouldn't have to learn even a few new phrases. "This magazine is for sale. If you want it, you have to buy it!"

"I don't want it." The Silver Ranger told him honestly. "I only want to know where I can find these Power Rangers."

"What, have you been living under a rock?" The man behind the counter asked him.

"On a spaceship actually." The Silver Ranger corrected him. The man just snorted, thinking that the stranger was just being sarcastic. "Now, where do I find them?"

"They're Power Rangers!" He responded. "If you find some of those Armada freaks, you can bet it won't be long before they show up."

"Thank you." The Silver Ranger stated, before turning and walking away. The newsagent just shook his head in disbelief.

"I thought I'd seen it all." He grunted.

Meanwhile, the Rangers had just gotten to Paris, cloaking the Red Galleon before making their way into the streets in their civilian clothing to avoid attracting too much attention. It didn't take them too long before they found what they were looking for. It wasn't every day that an alien craft crash-landed on one of the world's most famous landmarks. By the time they got there, the scene was a huge crowd already. Between media and random citizens trying to get a glimpse of the spaceship, it looked like half the city was skipping the rest of their day at work or school in the hopes of catching any of the story.

The police cordon was up, and there were many emergency crews keeping people away as they made the area secure. Fire and ambulance crews were packing up, preparing to go back to base, the area no longer needing their assistance, but there were other vans there, and men in strange suits, and others in lab coats in the area.

"What gives?" Gia asked. "Who are...?"

"Emma, lend me your camera." Noah interrupted Gia. Emma handed him the camera, at which Noah used the zoom lens to focus on one of the guy in a has-mat suit. He saw the logo on the back. "NASADA."

"The Space Agency?" Jake asked. Noah just nodded. "Damn, they move fast!"

"It's not every day they get their hands on almost a complete ship." Troy answered with a shrug. "Normally there's not much left after we're through with the Armada's ships."

"That ship...it's got Lafitte's logo on it." Noah told them, catching a glimpse of it through the crowd. Jake rolled his eyes.

"Lafitte?" He grumbled. "Great, I thought that guy had gotten the message and left!"

"It's not the same ship, but it's his logo alright." Noah told them. "The message says it's...the Free Joker."

"Great, that's all we need, Lafitte coming back." Jake muttered. Just then, a man came across to Noah.

"_The Camera!_" He snapped. Noah just stared at him blankly, realising he was gesturing to the camera.

"_Excuse me, but that's..._" Emma started to say, before realising there were cops starting to pay attention.

"_National Security._" The man stated.

"World's most wanted, remember." Troy whispered to Noah. He just sighed and handed over the camera regretfully. He figured it was better to just go along with it than to risk drawing too much attention to themselves. Nobody had recognised them so far, and it was probably for the best that it stayed that way. He watched as the man deleted everything on the memory card and threw the camera back to Noah. He handed it back to Emma.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's alright, I download my pictures regularly." She told him. "He only deleted a few shots of Paris. Nothing I can't replace."

Just then, they heard their morphers bleeping. Troy pulled his out, thankful that their new morphers looked upon a cursory inspection like a cell phone. Their old morphers were hardly inconspicuous, and caused them a few headaches back in the day with the secret identity issue.

"Uncle?" Troy asked, using the code they used for Tensou.

"Rangers, there's been an attack a few streets from your location!" Tensou told them.

"It looks like we're not the only ones looking for this thing." Troy told the others. "Send us the co-ordinates Tensou, we're on our way!"

With that, they all headed off, figuring there wasn't much more they could learn here. They doubted NASADA were going to open the cordon for them any time soon. Maybe they would get some answers from the source.

A little way away, in a shopping centre, citizens screamed as a legion of X-borgs ransacked the place. They knew that the ship that had almost hit the command ship was somewhere nearby. As an X-borg grabbed a human, raising its weapon to strike, there was a sudden flash of energy, following which its arm spun away from it, carrying its weapon with it. The robot looked to its arm as it clattered to the ground, then up, seeing the Silver Ranger, holding his trident weapon standing a little way off.

"Let him go." The Silver Ranger stated abruptly. The X-borgs immediately abandoned what they were doing, and rounded on the new arrival. The Silver Ranger gripped his trident tightly.

"Everyone out of here!" He yelled as they levelled their weapons at him. The X-borgs fired, hitting nothing but air as a silver streak flashed away. The Silver Ranger opened fire with his blaster mode, taking down almost half of them before converting it back into a trident, launching himself into one of them, impaling it aggressively, throwing the wreckage aside dismissively.

He started to circle back and forth, finding himself surrounded by the last of the X-borgs. As they came for him, he swung around, bringing his trident around in massive, destructive arcs, energy flashing through the air. All of the X-borgs stopped in their tracks as he finally came to rest, his trident resting over his shoulder. The whole scene was deathly silent and still for a moment, before one-by-one, the X-borgs all fell to the ground, neatly sliced into pieces. He stood upright, and looked around. He could see a few of the citizens who, despite his instructions, had stuck around for the battle, hiding in terror. He did one last sweep of the area, before just throwing his hands up in frustration.

"So much for that idea!" He said in a frustrated tone. He stormed away from the scene, de-morphing as he went. It was only after he had gone that the other Rangers arrived.

Troy was the first on the scene, followed closely by the others, but as they got there, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. By the time they got there, the mall was clear, and all the X-borgs were already defeated. There were pieces of broken machinery lying all over the place.

"What the hell?" Jake asked. "Who...who did this?"

"It looks like they ran into a blender!" Emma agreed.

One of the X-borgs started sparking, at which Noah went to its side, just as it powered down. He looked to them.

"Whoever did this, it can't have been long ago." He told them. "The power cell in this one only just died."

"Over there!" Gia announced, seeing someone hiding. She went over, gesturing her out. It was a girl, around their age, wearing a uniform that reminded her a little of the Brainfreeze uniforms. It looked like she worked in one of the nearby coffee shops.

"_What happened here?_" Gia asked.

"_I...I don't know...those things...they came from everywhere!_" The girl rushed out. Gia furrowed her brows and shook her head.

"_I can't understand you, can you speak more slowly?_" Gia asked. "_What happened? Who did this?_"

"_I don't know...I haven't seen him before._" The woman told her. "_It was...It was like a Power Ranger...only he was silver._"

"_A Silver Ranger did this?_" Emma asked for clarification. The waitress just nodded to confirm the detail.

"_Thank you._" Gia told her. "_Do you want us to call someone? An ambulance?_"

The girl didn't answer, instead just running off. Gia shrugged.

"I guess not." She stated, unable to stop herself from smiling. "Well guys, we know one thing at least."

"What's that?" Jake asked. They all stared at him. "What? I didn't do French! All the hottest girls were in the Spanish class!"

"She said a Silver Ranger did this!" Emma told him. "Guys...Jordan's back!"

"So where is he now?" Noah asked. Troy just sighed and looked to his team.

"I guess that's what we have to find out." He told them. Just then, his morpher bleeped. He answered it.

"Yes Uncle?" He asked.

"Rangers, there's another attack!" He told them. "I'm sending you the co-ordinates!"

"We're on it Tensou!" Troy told him. He smiled as he gestured to the others. "Come on guys, another attack!"

"And that's a good thing?" Jake asked him.

"It is if we get there in time." Troy told him. "We might have missed him this time, but you've got to believe after this length of time in the Library..."

"Jordan always was fond of a little action." Gia interrupted him as they ran off, heading for the next attack.


	3. The Silver Debut

On The Armada Command Ship, Prince Vekar was watching the action on Earth, his frustration building. Since the Free Joker had come to the Earth, narrowly missing a collision with his own ship, he had been spurred into action. He wanted to know who had brought that accursed ship, the one he was sure his forces had destroyed in a battle with Lafitte months ago, to his battle ground.

He had sent several waves of X-borgs to Earth, favouring overwhelming numbers over individual strength. Every time he had sent a Commander to Earth so far, all he had ended up with was one less Commander. He was sick of the Rangers and their constant interference. He already suspected that they had also gone to search for the Free Joker. As he sat, nursing his "injured" hand, his jaw hung open in shock.

"What? Another platoon down?" He screamed. "The first time I have an idea and its failing! Send more X-borgs!"

The others on the bridge just continued to carry out their tasks. So far, most of the ideas had been Vekar's, but he had a habit of deflecting blame for his failures. At least so far he was acknowledging that this plan, his plan to overwhelm the Rangers with X-borgs was his...though that was no guarantee that if that failed, he wouldn't somehow find a way to deny it was his plan.

"Without leadership, the X-borgs are falling in waves." Lavira told him.

"Perhaps it is time we sent in a Commander." Damaras suggested. "With a new plan."

"I have an idea!" Prince Vekar declared loudly, brushing Damaras aside. "We should send in a Commander! With a new plan!"

"Brilliant your highness." Lavira said sarcastically. "How DO you do it?"

Down in the streets of Paris, the Rangers had been running around ragged all day. They had been swamped with calls of X-borg attacks the length and breadth of the city. They felt like they must have run from one end of Paris to the other, but they didn't have time to do much sightseeing.

Every time they got there though, they found the exact same thing. X-borg lying in ruin, and citizens starting to come out of hiding, all saying the same thing, that they had been saved by a Silver Ranger.

"What is up with this?" Noah asked as they finally caught a break for a rest, opting to stop in one of the city's many coffee houses. "Every time we get to a battle, the X-borgs have already been defeated."

"Yeah, and Jordan's already gone." Emma answered. "Why wouldn't he wait for us?"

"Hey, you know what Jordan's like." Jake said with a smile. "He always did love action. After all that time in the Library, he's probably been itching for a decent workout. He probably just let it get the better of him."

"Well, it looks like he hasn't missed a step." Gia remarked, looking at Jake as she headed inside. "He was...oh..."

She paused as she accidentally walked into someone who was just leaving. He was taller than her, and given the fact she bounced back, while he barely moved at all meant she knew he was pretty solidly built. She felt his hands on her shoulders as she stumbled back.

"_Sorry._" She rushed out. "_I wasn't..._"

"Are you alright?" The stranger asked. Gia just looked into his face. He had smooth features, kind of ruggedly attractive, but with wild, blonde hair that looked like it hadn't been showered in a couple of days. He had steely grey eyes. His accent was strange, and she didn't quite recognise it, but she could tell it wasn't local. Her eyes strayed to a bracelet on his left wrist...it wasn't an especially attractive thing, or even look particularly expensive. In fact, if she was asked to describe it, it was like a piece of hammered tin. She didn't know why especially it caught her attention; she guessed it was kind of distinctive in its own way. She finally looked back up to him.

"Yeah, fine." She replied. "You...you're not from around here are you?"

"You could say that." He answered. "Glad you're alright." With that, he just left. Gia went in with the others, sitting down as Troy looked to the menu to order.

"What's the French word for cappuccino?" He asked. Noah just sighed and looked to the waitress.

"_Five cappuccinos please._" He said. "_What pastries would you recommend?_"

"_We have an excellent carrot cake._" She told him.

"_Five slices of that please._" He added. She smiled as she took the menu from him.

"_Your French is excellent._" She complimented him. "_I'll just be back with your order._"

As she left, Jake saw the smile on Noah's face and just grumbled.

"Show off." Jake muttered.

"I can't help it if you took Spanish." Noah answered.

"Dude, she was totally checking you out." Jake carried on. Noah just shrugged.

"I guess she just likes Americans who make an effort." He answered.

"Guys, can we focus here?" Troy asked. "X-borgs have been crawling all over the city all day."

"I've got to admit, it's been a long time since I've seen the prince send this kind of firepower." Gia conceded. "He hasn't sent a force this huge since Harwood."

"We have to be seriously eating into his robot budget." Jake chuckled. "I mean, after we decimated his fleet, it's not like he's had an inexhaustible supply of troops."

"That's the thing...we haven't been doing anything." Emma reminded them. "The Silver Ranger's been a step ahead of us every time."

"Yeah, he's just showing off now." Noah answered.

"That's Jordan alright." Gia agreed as their cappuccinos arrived. Just then, their morphers bleeped. Noah answered his morpher.

"Uncle?" He asked, seeing that the waitress was nearby. "Alright, we'll be there!"

He looked to the others.

"Guys, we have to go, now." He told them. "There's another...uh...show a couple of streets from here, on Rue de Saiban..."

"_Excuse me; did you say you had to get to Rue de Saiban quickly?_" The waitress asked him. Noah just nodded. "_There's a shortcut down the alley to the right of the cafe. If you head that way, you'll be there in two minutes._"

"_Thank You._" Noah replied as they got up, paying for their coffees, which sadly they had to leave. "Guys, come on, there's a shortcut."

"Great, maybe we can get there in time." Gia answered as they left.

A couple of streets over, more X-borgs were flooding the street as the latest Commander walked with them. He was an odd looking creature, even for one of Prince Vekar's minions. He was bright orange, and looked a little like a humanoid lobster. He was wearing a large, heavy, metal collar around his neck.

"We're going to have a real blast!" He declared as one of his X-borgs approached him, carrying a large explosive. "Finding that ship should be simple once we get rid of all these buildings!"

As he laughed, the Rangers arrived. Troy took the lead.

"Party's over monster!" He called out.

"Hey, it looks like we finally beat Jordan here." Jake stated as he checked around, looking for any sign of the Silver Ranger.

"Good, you're here!" The monster responded. "Prince Vekar's tired of you destroying his X-borgs, so he's sent me to blow you away!"

"Try it!" Troy yelled as he and the other Rangers morphed. "It looks like they have a bomb! We have to get it away from them before it blows!"

"Oh don't worry, I won't set it off." The monster replied, taking a seat nearby casually. "It's on a timer, and set to go off and take you with it!"

"Hey, come back here!" Jake yelled as he saw one of the Xborgs carrying the bomb. He set off, running after it, hoping to take the bomb from it. He wasn't used to seeing X-borgs running; their standard programme was for combat, with no let up. They had no fear, and pain didn't discourage them in the slightest. However, it seemed like this one had activated a programme for evasion. He lunged for it, but each time he got close, it would pull just out of the way. As soon as he had it backed into a corner, it threw the bomb overhead.

"You've got to be kidding me!" He complained as he ran after the new bomb carrier. The others hacked down their enemies as quickly as they could, hoping to cut down on the number of distractions and clear the way to the bomb.

Each of them chased after the X-borg carrying the bomb, narrowly missing him as he either just evaded them, or another blocked their path. Eventually he threw the bomb to the monster.

"What's the matter?" The Commander asked them. "Don't you want to save this city? Or is it that you just can't?"

More X-borgs arrived as he handed off the bomb to another. Gia growled and punched the ground as she got back to her feet after stumbling in her latest lunge for the bomb.

"These guys are seriously pissing me off now!" She complained.

They attacked with a renewed intensity as they heard the bleeping from the bomb becoming more rapid and intense. They had to presume that meant it was about to go off.

"This is the worst game of hot-potato EVER!" Noah snarled as he cut down the bomb-carrier, but not before he threw the bomb to another X-borg.

"What's the matter with you?" Jake yelled at the Commander. "Don't you know what'll happen if that thing goes off? It'll take you with it!"

The Commander just laughed hearing this. Eventually though, one of the X-borgs made a fatal error, concentrating on Troy, but failing to notice Emma right behind it, her sword in her hand. She sliced its arms off as it held the bomb overhead, out of reach of Troy. He caught the bomb, with the X-borg's arms still attached.

"Thanks Emma." He stated as he threw it into the air as hard as he could. With his strength augmented by the Ranger suit, he was able to throw it high enough that the street avoided the worst of the blast. They were all knocked from their feet, and some of the higher buildings lost some windows, but all things considered, the bomb was mostly harmless.

Back on the Armada Command Ship, Damaras turned to Prince Vekar.

"It seems Corcax has also failed." Damaras told him. "His device failed to destroy the Rangers as we hoped. We'll have to come up with another plan."

"See! I KNEW my plan was the best!" Prince Vekar screamed at him, conveniently ignoring the fact that he had claimed Damaras' plan was his when he thought it was going to work. "Send in an even bigger force of X-borgs! Am I the only one that can come up with an idea like that? We'll put the Rangers under so much pressure, they are bound to tire and fail!"

Down in Paris, the Rangers were finishing off what they thought would be the last of the X-borgs, before starting to advance on Corcax. The alien, realising he was on his own was about to act when he saw more ships arriving, carrying reinforcements. As they landed, he pointed to the Rangers.

"Go and get them already!" He yelled.

"More X-borgs?" Jake asked.

"You'd have thought they'd have learned their lesson by now!" Noah agreed, launching into action. However, it was quickly becoming clear that even as they wrecked wave after wave of the new arrivals, more quickly came to replace them.

"Is it Prince Vekar's birthday or something?" Noah asked. "Did he get a whole lot more toys to throw at us?"

"They just keep coming!" Emma agreed, blasting a couple down. "There's just no end to them!"

"It's like we take one down, and two more take their place!" Gia rushed out as she smashed another couple down, before quickly retreating from a couple of others as they attacked. She managed to blast down one, but as he started to get up, she lost her temper, and started smashing him over the head with the handle of her sword. "STAY DOWN!"

Just as they were starting to feel their exhaustion starting to get the better of them, they were almost toppled as a huge gust of wind blasted through. It was only as they looked around, they realised it wasn't a wind, but that a sliver streak of energy. They all grinned broadly as they saw the Silver Ranger launch himself into the air, landing among the X-borgs.

"Stay back! I'll take care of this!" The Silver Ranger called out as he ploughed into the X-borg army before him. The others stopped in their tracks, unable to believe what they were seeing.

"I can't believe it, he really is here!" Emma called out.

"No matter how many times I see it, I always love watching Jordan work!" Jake agreed as the Silver Ranger smashed the X-borgs into oblivion.

"He really hasn't missed a step!" Gia complimented him. "I guess he wasn't just reading in that Library."

"I won't let you commit your atrocities on this planet too!" The Silver Ranger declared as he pulled out his blaster. "Silver Spear Blaster!"

The X-borgs went down in droves as he opened fire, taking them down with practiced volleys.

"He always was good with a blaster." Troy recalled. Unlike the rest of them, his time on military bases meant that Jordan had already had some firearms training. He had helped the others with their marksmanship once he joined the team as the Robo Knight. "Watch out!"

"Thanks!" The Silver Ranger answered as he turned in time to take down another couple of X-borgs that were trying to sneak up on him. Others formed up into a firing formation, levelling their weapons his way.

"Super Silver Spear!" He yelled as he transformed his weapon into a trident, smashing aside blasts as he ran towards them, slicing through them with his attacks.

"I'll make sure this world has a chance mine never got!" He roared as he attacked. "Unfortunately for you, I survived!"

He powered up his weapon, swinging it around, creating a series of energy waves that left the X-borgs in pieces on the ground, and the Silver Ranger standing alone before them. The Rangers continued to stare at him, unable to believe what they had seen.

"He took a whole platoon by himself!" Noah said, sounding gleeful. "I remember he was good, but he really picked up some tricks!"

"What do you think he meant about a chance his world never had?" Emma asked.

"He obviously means Eltar." Gia reminded her. "I guess having his Eltarian half kick-started gave him a sense of pride in that part of his heritage."

"I trust you can handle the Commander?" The Silver Ranger asked as he saw some X-borgs a little way off. "I see some stragglers!"

As he ran off, the others just looked at each other.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Troy asked them. "You heard the man, let's take this guy out!"

Up on The Armada Command Ship, Prince Vekar and the others were watching the screen. Vekar just looked alarmed.

"A Silver Ranger?" He screamed. "Why didn't anyone tell me they had one of those?"

"We...uh...we didn't know." Argus explained.

"Send in more X-borgs!" He yelled.

"There are no more ready!" Lavira told him. "You sent all the X-borgs we have powered up! It'll be hours before we can charge up more!"

"Corcax is failing miserably." Damaras stated. "He'll need more power if he's to succeed."

"Don't worry; I gave him a secret weapon." She assured them. "The Rangers will find he's not as weak as he looks."

Back down on the ground, the Rangers faced off against Corcax. Levelling their blasters at him, they opened fire, only for their shots to scatter in a blinding flash.

"Hey, what gives?" Jake asked.

"That's it?" He taunted them. "Come on, I'll even give you a free shot!"

Noah and Gia ran for him, swinging their swords, only to be thrown back aggressively in a blinding flash.

"Damn, it feels like my arm was nearly ripped off!" Gia snarled.

"Me too!" Noah agreed. "Guys, he has some kind of energy conversion device, a mechanism that converts kinetic energy into light and sound energy."

"What did he say?" Emma asked.

"A force field!" Jake told them.

"Maybe some more power will help us burst through." Troy suggested. "Legendary mode, Ninja Storm!"

They rushed Corcax, attacking him with everything they had. Unfortunately, any time they attacked, their blows were stopped by an unseen barrier inches from him, while his attacks seemed to be unimpeded, getting straight through and striking them down.

"Man, this guy's tough." Troy commented as he pulled himself to his feet.

"I'm tired of getting knocked around!" Jake snarled, gripping his Thunder Staff. Running towards Corcax, he dodged some incoming blasts, before launching himself into the air, coming down towards his head. He found himself bounced off the force field, and thrown over him, but as he did so, he dropped his thunder staff, which seemed to slip through the force field. All the Rangers watched as sparks flew from Corcax's collar and he screamed out in pain. Troy saw the energy dissipate, but to confirm his suspicion, he fired a ninja beam, which stung Corcax on the thigh painfully.

"Guys! The force field is down!" He called out as they regrouped. "Come on, let's take him down!"

Lighning arced from Corcax, taking them all down before they could get to him.

"I must retreat for now Rangers, but know this! Next time I will defeat you!" He screamed as he ran teleporting away in a bright flash. As they de-morphed, Troy just looked frustrated.

"Damn it, he got away!" He called out.

"Wait...where's Jordan?" Gia asked, looking around. The others started doing the same as they realised that somewhere in the battle, the Silver Ranger had disappeared after destroying the last of the X-borgs. Troy just sighed.

"What is going on here?" He asked, bringing up the question they all wanted to ask.


	4. A Silver Surprise

"You ran off?" Prince Vekar screamed as Corcax stood before him, visibly shaking in fear. He had fought the Rangers, and he been faring well until the Green Ranger had gotten lucky and damaged his shield generator. Corcax had never been the strongest warrior by himself, merely a competent fighter by comparison to someone like Skatana, but thanks to his shield, he had become a powerful siege-breaker in Vekar's forces. His shield was able to withstand almost any attack, meaning he was always an ideal choice to lead a charge on fortifications, acting as an ice-breaker to plough through enemy attacks, shattering barrages of even the heaviest artillery and allowing their forces to overwhelm the position with sheer numbers of relatively untouched troops.

He had almost brought that same invincibility to bear on the Rangers. He had been able to take virtually everything they could throw at them, and attack without reprisal. His shield was not, however, infallible as had been shown. He had designed the collar with the generator in the back, reasoning that since most of his enemies would be facing him, however by sheer chance the Green Ranger had found that weak spot. He had managed to strike it with a weapon, damaging his shield, and bringing it down. Corcax had fled as soon as he had felt Troy's Ninja Beam, knowing his impenetrable defence was no longer working. Now though, he was starting to wonder if perhaps staying and taking his chances with the Rangers would have been a better idea. Prince Vekar's petulance and spite were well-known, and while he doubted the Prince would have the stomach to execute him personally, he was more than willing to watch those under his command perform atrocities that would give any sane mind nightmares.

"Are you kidding me?" He continued to rant as Argus stood behind Corcax, his hand on the hilt of his sword, awaiting the command. "When the going gets tough, the tough run away is that your motto?"

Corcax could see the writing on the wall. He knew that there was a good chance that the prince would order him to be disposed of in some graphic and creative way that would make every second of his remaining life agony. Either that or he could order Argus just to finish him here and now. Corcax considered his options, realising he didn't have many. For a second, the thought crossed his mind that if he was going to die, then he might as well take the opportunity to remind the Prince and everyone around that it wasn't so long ago that Vekar himself had run from battle, fleeing with tears in his eyes when the Blue Ranger struck him in the face, breaking his nose. It wouldn't save him, but at least it would give him a measure of satisfaction in his final moments. However, he opted instead for the only option he could see that could end with him leaving with his life, albeit however slim that chance was. He started to beg.

"Of course not Your Highness, but with my forcefield disabled, I had no choice but to retreat!" He screamed. Lavira came to his side.

"Your Highness, if the Rangers have discovered his weakness, how could he be expected to defeat them?" She pointed out. Corcax was a little puzzled by this development, but he was pleased at the same time. One of the senior officers was actually defending him. He immediately started nodding frantically in agreement.

"Yes, that's my..."

"You will find a way!" Damaras stated. "Or you will fall trying! Unless you want to stay and test our mercy?"

"Yeah!" Prince Vekar rushed out as he leaned forward. "Get back down to that planet, and don't come back until you've finished the job!"

Corcax knew that arguing wasn't likely to get him anywhere, and instead just left. He was already trying to weigh up his chances if he took this opportunity to just run. He knew others that had worked for the Prince had managed to escape, though he wasn't sure exactly how given his reputation for spite. In the end, he resigned himself to the fact that his only chance of getting out of this with his life, however slim, was to risk facing the Rangers again.

"How dare he give me such attitude?" The Prince asked his senior advisors.

"I believe he was upset with himself, not you sir." Argus suggested.

"What do you mean?" Prince Vekar asked him.

"Both his force field and his device failed to defeat the Rangers." He reminded the prince.

"Neither his failure nor his attitude will be tolerated." Damaras stated. "I'll go and destroy him now."

"No, wait!" Prince Vekar called out, stopping Damaras as he was about to go in search of Corcax. He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe his plan wasn't so terrible. Perhaps with a little modification it could work. Maybe we want his shield to fail."

The others just looked at him, a little puzzled. It wasn't exactly uncommon for a lot of what the prince said to make very little sense, but this time he really wasn't saying anything that they understood.

"Lavira." He called to his science officer, gesturing her over. He leant in to speak closely to her. "Come closer. I have a plan that could defeat the Rangers once and for all!"

Back on Earth, the Rangers got back to the coffee shop they had left to face Corcax. Although the waitress had already cleared the table, it was clear that she had taken a shine to Noah, and after a little flirting, and a cock-and-bull story about going to help an elderly uncle who had fallen in the street and hurt himself, she was only too happy to replace the carrot cake and cappuccinos they had been forced to leave untouched. As the waitress left, Gia just looked to Noah and smiled.

"Well, who knew you would turn into such a Casanova?" She teased him.

"What can I say? Some girls like the geek thing." He responded with a shrug.

"I don't think it's your brain she was interested in." Gia remarked, arching an eyebrow. The fact was, all the training he had done had made a pretty radical difference to Noah's physique. He wasn't the scrawny guy anymore, and it wasn't as if this waitress was the first one to notice.

"Guys, can we focus?" Troy asked. "We got lucky this time around."

"Yeah, if Jordan hadn't shown up, who knows what would have happened?" Jake answered.

"Yeah, but...where did he go?" Emma asked. "I mean...didn't something seem off to you about that whole thing?"

"What do you mean?" Noah asked.

"You know...the way he showed up, then disappeared again and didn't come back?" She asked them. "He's been in The Library for six months! After all that time, with only Pythia for company, don't you think he'd want to meet up with us?"

"Now that I think about it...that did seem odd." Noah agreed. "I mean, I know running off in battle isn't exactly unlike him, but he always came back."

"Maybe we should have hung around?" Jake suggested. "I mean, it is a new city. Maybe he just got lost on his way back."

"Yeah, where'd he disappear to?" Gia asked. "Should we maybe be looking for him? Maybe he ran into trouble."

"With X-borgs?" Troy asked her. "I doubt it. I'm sure he's probably looking for us."

"Look, I'm sure we'll run into him. I know he's just itching to be back on the team." Jake assured them. "In the meantime, can we focus on this monster? We know they have a habit of coming back. When I accidentally hit his collar, that's what disabled his force field."

"Of COURSE, his collar's what generated the force field." Noah responded. "So that's why he ran off."

"He ran off to fix it." Emma concluded.

"So that's the source of his power, but also his weak spot." Gia agreed.

"Nice catch." Troy complimented them; beginning to put the pieces together and realising they were right. "OK, so next time we come across him, we lure him into a position that exposes the back of his collar."

Just then, their morphers bleeped. Fortunately they were almost finished their order this time.

"What is it Uncle?" Noah asked.

"Rangers, there's another attack, in the city centre!" Tensou told them. "Hurry!"

"Man, this is getting seriously weird." Jake grumbled, gulping the last of his cappuccino, and shoving half the carrot cake in his mouth.

"Maybe this is just what we need though." Gia suggested. "If that guy's back...Jordan's probably on his way too! We can kill two birds with one stone!"

"We can worry about that when we get there." Troy answered. "Come on guys, let's go!"

Up on The Armada Command Ship, Damaras watched as the Rangers arrived on the scene, beating the Silver Ranger to the site of the battle for the second time. He watched as they attacked, but seeing the shield flaring up, he looked a little surprised.

"His shield has been repaired?" He asked.

"Of course it has! You didn't think I'd send him into battle without his strongest weapon do you?" Prince Vekar asked him, sniggering slightly as he said it. "I had Lavira help him repair it, with a little upgrade."

"You upgraded his shield?" Damaras asked. "But...what was all that about wanting his shield to fail? Shouldn't Corcax be enacting your plan?"

"But he is." The prince replied, continuing to snigger in a childish way. Damaras and Argus just looked to each other, and then back to him. "The plan requires him to be in the dark. You see, I know the Rangers discovered his weak spot, and would target it again. So I ordered Lavira to make it look like his collar had been reinforced."

"Look like?" Argus asked him. "But...why not really reinforce it?"

"Because I secretly had Lavira put a little surprise in there." Prince Vekar answered. "You see, his idea of using a bomb wasn't a bad idea, it just needed a little...alteration. What if the bomb doesn't know he's a bomb?"

"WHAT?" Damaras yelled, looking alarmed. He looked away as he thought about this. He was the prince's strategic advisor. With that came a certain sense of pragmatism when it came to loss of life. The fact was that any military operation rarely ended without casualties. There was a certain amount of 'accounting' involved in forming battle plans, namely deciding what was and was not an acceptable risk, and ascertaining the likely losses in any strategy. As harsh as it sounded, a large part of strategy was deciding who was and wasn't expendable. However, Damaras did have his limits. One of the reasons they made such heavy use of X-borgs and Bruisers was that it limited casualties among their followers. Soldiers risked their lives to fight for The Armada. The best way he could think to honour that sacrifice they were willing to make was to ensure that if he did risk their lives, he didn't do it needlessly. There was a difference between sending a soldier into a dangerous mission knowingly, and sending a soldier blindly into a suicide mission. "To get the Rangers, you would sacrifice one of your Commanders?"

"To get the Rangers...I'd do ANYTHING!" Prince Vekar yelled as he went back to his throne, and sat, his feet crossed on the bench as he brought the battle up on the large screen. "Now...someone get me some popcorn! I don't want to miss a second of this!"

Back in the streets of Paris, the Rangers were giving Corcax all they had in their battle. His shield was back, and as strong as ever, meaning that no matter what they threw at him, it only resulted in a flash of light. He on the other hand was free to hit them at will.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Troy called out. "Does anyone have a shot at his collar?"

"He's got some kind of new clasp on it." Gia called out. "It looks like he's made improvements!"

"It's stronger, that just means we need a stronger hit." Jake told them. "I've got a plan, keep his attention!"

"You heard him!" Troy responded as the Rangers intensified their attack. Jake saw a nearby tree, with a branch hanging out at just a nice height. He climbed up, taking his place in the branches out of sight, and waited for the Rangers to get Corcax in position.

They didn't know that a little way off, the Silver Ranger was watching. He saw the Rangers fighting and furrowed his brows.

"Four...where's the Green Ranger?" He asked, looking around, before finally finding Jake in the tree. He saw the other Rangers hitting the shield and retreating, and realised they were corralling him, leading him into a position for Jake to make his move. He remembered the last battle, having seen the tail end of it, when Jake had hit the collar. He realised what they were doing.

As he saw the new addition to the collar, he crouched down, keeping an eye on the action.

"Wait...this all seems too simple." He commented. "Why would they draw attention to...?"

Suddenly, a horrible thought occurred to him. His Silver Spear appeared in his hand, and he broke into a run as Corcax was moved into position.

"Nice work guys." Jake said as they drove him back towards the tree with their blasters. "Now I've got a good, clear shot!"

He threw himself out the tree, straight towards Corcax, yelling as he went. As he was about to strike though, he found his blow stopped. He looked up, seeing that it was the Silver Spear that had blocked his blow.

"What?" Jake called out. "Jordan, what are you doing?"

"Sorry guys, but that collar is too obvious a target!" The Silver Ranger told them. "You've got to trust me on this!"

The Rangers all stood back, letting Jordan begin a new attack on Corcax. While he had his moments of being somewhat careless back in the day, he had gotten a lot better at fighting without levelling whole city blocks in the process. They had trusted him before, and they were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt now.

Corcax threw lightning bolts straight at the Silver Ranger, but he ignored them, his determination driving him through.

"I won't let this world lose its defenders too!" He yelled. He lunged for Corcax, his every strike being dissipated by the shield. Corcax just started laughing as he threw his own attacks.

"This is pathetic!" He taunted him. "You can't beat what you can't hit!"

The Silver Ranger made one last lunge at him, but at the last moment, he shifted his position, shifting around Corcax as he attempted to hit him. He came up on the other side, bringing his Silver Spear up, hooking it inside the collar at the clasp. He heard a loud bleeping as he twisted it, cracking the seal and confirmed his suspicion.

"Everyone! Stay clear of the collar!" He screamed as he pried it off, throwing it high into the air. It got far enough away that by the time the bomb detonated, it just shook the street, setting off car alarms and shattering a few windows. Corcax and the Rangers just stared into the sky as pieces of it fell to the ground.

"Man, that was close!" Jake remarked.

"What?" Corcax stammered in disbelief. "The Prince used me?"

"Yeah, now you see how evil The Armada really is!" The Silver Ranger stated with authority, spinning his Silver Spear around. "But you'll still get no mercy from me!"

He brought his Silver Spear around in wild arcs, slicing into him again and again, mercilessly pummelling the Commander for his attack on the Earth. As he fell away, they watched as the Silver Ranger pulled out a Ranger Key, placing it into his Silver Spear.

"Final STRIKE!" He called out as he launched himself into the air. His trident started to glow brightly as he prepared to throw it, launching it through the air. It tore straight through the Commander, at which he started to spark, signalling his end. He fell to the ground, and exploded as the weapon returned to the Silver Ranger's hand.

"And my vengeance begins!" He announced as the Commander exploded. The other Rangers assembled around him as he stood before them.

"Wow, that was amazing!" Noah complimented him. "That weapon is sick!"

"Your moves are pretty good too." Jake added. "It looks like you've been doing more than just reading in The Library."

"The Library?" The Silver Ranger asked.

"Whatever Jordan, it's great to have you back!" Emma told him. "Even Gia missed you!"

"I did not!" Gia yelled. She then looked to the Silver Ranger and laughed. "Okay, well...maybe a little."

"Who's Jordan?" The Silver Ranger asked them. The other Rangers just stood before him, looking confused. He de-morphed in a bright flash before them, leaving the whole team completely at a loss for what to say.

"You...you're not Jordan." Gia stammered. "You're that guy I bumped into at the coffee shop!"

"Who are you?" Jake demanded. "How did you get those powers?"

For a long moment, the Silver Ranger just stared straight back at them. Both of those were excellent questions, ones he wasn't sure that he could answer in a satisfactory way.


	5. Orion's Tale

A little while later, the Rangers were all assembled on the Red Galleon, with the mysterious new Silver Ranger sitting on a chair in the middle of the room. It had taken a bit of discussion, but when they weighed up the pros and cons of figuring out who the mysterious stranger was in the middle of the street, against figuring it out on the Galleon, they had eventually decided it was probably safest to take him to their command ship. After all, as Jake pointed out, all too quickly and enthusiastically, if they didn't like his answers, they could always throw him overboard somewhere over the ocean with little fear. He obviously had no intention of really doing so, but of course, the Silver Ranger didn't know that.

He had already shown he was not someone to take lightly. It wasn't like just anyone could face down a whole legion of X-borgs single-handed and walk away virtually unscathed. Hell, it wasn't like many could face down a whole platoon of X-borgs and walk away ALIVE! He had now left around half a dozen such battlefields the winner. It was only some convincing from the Rangers that had convinced him to go quietly with them, and even then they had made sure they took his morpher from him and he was always watched by at least two of them.

He was a tall guy, taller than all of them, and very solidly built, with messy, greasy, wild blonde hair and grey eyes. He had a grey shirt that was frayed at the sleeves, a significant way from his wrists, just above the elbow suggesting that at one time it HAD been a full-length shirt, that was matted in dirt, sweat and grime. He was wearing dirty grey trousers of a hard-wearing material.

The Silver Ranger sat, watching them discussing matters, his morpher hanging from Noah's belt. The Blue Ranger was standing just far enough from him, with at least one other Ranger between him and the stranger at all times, that they were ready in case he made a lunge for it. He could understand why they had insisted he was unarmed before they let him onto the Red Galleon. After a while, Troy, the one in red, who he assumed to be the leader by the way the others acted around him, started to approach him.

"Noah's got your morpher." He told him.

"Morpher?" The stranger replied. Troy just clenched his jaw in frustration, uncertain as to whether the stranger was just playing dumb, or genuinely didn't know what he was talking about. All things considered, he was taking no chances this wasn't some form of trap.

"He's taking it to have a look at it, and see what it can do." Troy told him as he took a seat himself. "In the meantime, who are you?"

The stranger stared at him coldly, and seemed to tense up as he heard the question. He said something that none of them understood.

"Excuse me?" Troy asked. The Silver Ranger repeated what he had said, leaving none of them any the wiser. Tensou flew into view.

"I think I can be of help." He responded. He landed on a nearby table and looked to the Silver Ranger, before saying something none of them understood. The stranger seemed to respond, his head snapping around as he heard this. He said something in response.

"You know what he's saying?" Jake asked.

"He's speaking Andresean." Tensou explained. "It's a mining world in the same quadrant as KO 35..."

"So...he's not playing us?" Noah asked.

"He is." Gia responded. "He spoke English when I ran into him. I bet he understands us just fine."

Tensou looked back to him, saying something in Andresean, to which the stranger eventually responded. He looked to the others.

"His name is Orion." Tensou told them. They weren't really in a position to doubt him; the one word he had said a few times that they recognised was 'Orion', which apparently was his name. "He said he's a miner from Andresea."

"A miner?" Jake responded, pointing to the morpher, which Noah was inspecting. "That doesn't look much like a pick axe to me."

Orion said something in Andresean, but Troy had heard enough. He clapped his hands, bringing Orion's attention his way.

"We know you understand us." He stated. "Now, I can have Tensou question you, or you can just answer our questions."

"I am Orion." Orion told him. "I'm a miner."

"We got that part already." Jake scoffed. "How did you get here? How did you get that morpher?"

"Morpher?" Orion asked again. Jake made a move like he was about to hit Orion, but Noah stopped him.

"This thing." Noah explained, showing him his morpher. "It's called a morpher."

Orion just nodded in understanding, but didn't say anything else. Troy just looked irritated, and leant forward.

"We can do this the easy way, or the..."

"Can...can I suggest something?" Emma said as she came closer, brushing her hand on Troy's shoulder. He looked to her for a moment, before gesturing to her to continue. His girlfriend had pretty good instincts when it came to people, and he was starting to get the feeling that Orion wasn't exactly scared of him or the other Rangers.

Emma approached him, and knelt down before him, giving him a bright smile.

"Tensou said you're Andresean?" She asked him. "You're from a planet called Andresea?"

"That's right." He responded. She placed a hand on his left forearm and started to stroke it.

"We haven't heard of it. None of us have ever left Earth." She informed him. "What's it like there?"

"Dead." He answered bluntly. Emma just looked around, seeing that the others were at a loss to know what to make of it either. "That is to say...there are no other Andresean people. They were wiped out. I was the only one left."

"I'm...I'm sorry to hear that." Emma answered as she listened to him. Orion looked into her eyes, and something in him relented. Even though he had no real reason to believe these Rangers were about to treat him with anything other than suspicion, he felt like he could believe in her.

"I was a miner, some time ago." He explained. "I'm not sure how you measure time here as opposed to on my planet, so I can't tell you exactly how long ago."

"My scans of his genetics suggest he's around 23 Earth years old." Tensou told her.

"He's not much older than us." Gia stated. Jake just sighed and approached.

"Alright, so you're an alien. What gives?" He asked. "How did you get here?"

"I flew in a space ship." Orion replied, with absolutely no hint of sarcasm in his tone. Jake didn't look like he was in the mood to be mocked.

"The Free Joker?" Gia asked him, remembering the name from the ship that Nasada had salvaged from the streets of Paris. Orion just nodded.

"So why are you here?" Troy asked him. Orion just looked to him, not blinking once as he answered.

"I'm here to wipe the Armada from the face of the universe!" He responded. "Every last one of them!"

"You said Andresea was destroyed." Gia recalled. "They did it didn't they? The Armada, they attacked your planet."

"They didn't attack my planet, they destroyed it!" Orion snapped, his hands tensing into fists so tight that his knuckles started to turn pure white. "They wiped out every man, woman and child on the face of that planet! Everyone I ever knew!"

"My God." Emma murmured, hearing this. Jake seemed less convinced, crossing his arms.

"And I guess they just forgot about you?" He asked. "That seems convenient."

Orion shifted in his seat, like he was about to spring forward and attack, but seeing the others getting ready to intercept, he thought better of it.

"There was nothing convenient about having to bury everyone I ever knew by myself!" He responded. "There was nothing convenient about spending weeks working night and day just to bury the dead!"

"So what happened to you?" Jake asked. "You looked like you could handle yourself in a fight, why didn't you stop them?"

"I didn't have the power!" Orion yelled. "Our military was overwhelmed! The only reason I survived the bombardment was because I was in the mine at the time! I was buried under tons of rock for days! By the time I finally managed to dig myself out, everyone was gone!"

"Andresea was hit by The Armada approximately three Earth years ago." Tensou confirmed. "I was sure everyone was wiped out. Everyone was."

"So if everyone on Andresea was killed, answer this." Jake stated. "How did you survive? How did you get here?"

"It wasn't easy." Orion answered. "For a long time, I had to learn to fend for myself. I had to learn how to fish and how to hunt to eat. The only thing that kept me going was my anger, the thought that one day I'd get to do to the Armada what they did to my family, to my friends! There was only one problem, with no ship, and no way to contact anyone that had a ship, I had no way of getting off the planet. Then one day, I saw a ship landing."

"An Armada ship?" Jake asked. Orion just shook his head.

"I thought so at first, but it was the ship your authorities found." He told them. "It was the Free Joker. It was the ship that had been commandeered by a pirate called Lafitte."

"Lafitte?" Emma asked. The Rangers just looked around each other.

"You've heard of him?" He asked.

"We've met." Troy answered. "So, how do you know him?"

"He's the one that got me off Andresea." He stated. "He's the one that gave me a purpose."

His mind drifted back to some time ago, back when he was still on what was left of his home world. The Armada didn't come to Andresea after the purge, indeed, no one did! The usual supply ships had either heard that Andresea had been destroyed, or they had been destroyed themselves. The bombardments had left pretty much anything short of the most basic hand tools that didn't require a power source inoperable. Any ships he could find were either destroyed completely, or had been so badly damaged that without parts he would need to get from another world would never fly. Either way, it meant that Orion was facing a bleak, lonely existence on his own for the rest of his days. He was sitting in his shelter, a rough affair he had built against the side of a cliff on the day he heard something that filled him as much with dread as it did hope. It was the sound of engines.

He grabbed a home-made spear as he set off running to follow it. He could see that it was an Armada fighter, and more than that, it wasn't like the others that had attacked his home. It was painted red, with a strange emblem on the side. He followed it as it started to descend towards the planet's surface. He could hardly believe his luck. If the ship landed, all he would have to do was take the crew by surprise, and he'd finally be able to get off his home planet and his journey of vengeance could begin.

He tracked the ship over a ridge, all the way back to what had been his home village, finding it landing in the central square, on the ruins of what had at one time been the monument dedicated to those who had lost their lives in mining accidents. Orion gripped his spear tightly as the rear hatch opened, and he prepared to strike. As two men stepped out of the ship though, he looked puzzled. These men didn't look like any Armada troops he had ever seen. In fact, they looked human. One of them was dressed very ostentatiously, in a bright red great-coat, with a long feather boa that reached almost to his ankles, over a green flannel shirt, and canvas trousers, with black leather boots. On top of his head, he had a huge, floppy hat, with a massive plume coming from it. He was wearing a collection of large, fancy rings that looked like they were worth more than the combined wealth of the whole planet before the invasion. Lafitte looked around as he arrived.

"You can always rely on the Elite Guard to leave a considerable mess." Lafitte sighed, looking around. "Are you sure about this?"

"Andresea was well known for its rich mineral deposits." The man next to him stated. He was a little less flamboyant in his dress sense, opting instead for a black waist coat and white shirt, over blue canvas trousers with black leather boots. He was wearing a shoulder harness, which carried a couple of hand blasters. He had spiky, slightly unkempt black hair, and whie he didn't wear anything like as much jewellery as Lafitte, he too had some precious rings and necklaces, keeping his money close so to speak. He bent down, and swept aside some rocks, before picking up a large, clear, uncut crystal the size of a softball. "Look at that. This crystal could power a whole fleet of fighters for a month, and it was just lying in the middle of the street!"

"And thanks to The Armada, we don't even have anyone to try and take it from." Lafitte responded with a smile. "I'll go and get Kolo. You see what you can turn up. This is a nice little score you uncovered here Marv."

Lafitte went to retrieve his other henchman as Marv, started to get to work, looking around the wreckage for anything of value. Orion moved closer, keeping himself out of sight. He was sickened to see the man sifting through the wreckage of people's homes. These men were vultures, scavengers picking the bones of what was left of his home planet. Rage burned through him as he came close. He leapt into the air, driving his spear for Marv's exposed back, finding only nothing as the spear was driven into the ground. He was kicked in the side of the face, and sent sprawling. By the time he turned back, Marv had a blaster trained on him.

"Next time you want to sneak up on someone, you might want to try doing it from upwind." Marv taunted him. "You're a little ripe there boy. Still, I guess the lesson is a little pointless. It's not like you'll get another chance to..."

Orion interrupted him by throwing a handful of sand in his face, blinding him as he scrambled to his feet, and kicked the blaster from his hand. He tackled him to the ground, at which the two men wrestled, struggling to get into position to finish the other off. The whole thing ended when Orion was grabbed from behind, and thrown several feet, landing in a heap on the ground. The hulking form of Kolo cast a dark shadow over him as the gorilla let out a low growl. Lafitte stood by Marv as he got up.

"I thought you said the planet was deserted." Lafitte stated.

"I thought it was." Marv responded, picking up his blaster. "Don't worry, it soon will be." Lafitte held up a hand, gesturing to him to stand down as he looked to Orion, considering him for a moment. He smiled.

"You took a big chance taking on Marv like that." Lafitte told him. "I've seen Marv take on a whole platoon of X-borgs and walk away unscathed."

"The Armada already destroyed everything!" He roared. "I won't let you desecrate what's left to plunder my world! I don't care what happens to me, I won't let you or any of the Armada...!"

"Armada?" Lafitte chuckled, looking to Marv and shaking his head, before looking back to him. "Do we look like Armada to you?"

"We're pirates kid!" Marv told him. "You see that ship? We...liberated it from an Armada crew months ago!"

"I don't care who you are!" Orion told him. Lafitte just smiled.

"I've a feeling you're about to." Lafitte told him. "You want to get back at The Armada right?"

"I'd give anything to..."

"A simple yes will suffice." Lafitte told him. "Why don't you join my crew?"

"Captain?" Marv asked.

"You gave Marv here a pretty good run for his money, it's been a long time since I've seen that." Lafitte told him. "I'm guessing you've had a lot of time to practice out here...not many distractions?"

"I am no pirate!" Orion told him.

"Well, I don't think you've thought that through." Lafitte told him. "You see, we are pirates, which means we attack and plunder the wealthiest ships. In this sector, that means The Armada. If you want to kill Armada, then come with us and you'll get your chance."

He stood up and panned his hand around the wasteland that had been his home.

"Or we could just leave you here to your dreams of getting back at The Armada, it's up to you. It really does make no difference to me." Lafitte told him. Orion looked around, and could only think of the time he had been here already. He was no pirate, he had no intention of becoming a pirate, but if he turned Lafitte down, there was no guarantee there would ever be another ship coming through this section of the galaxy. He would once again be stranded with no way to leave. From the look on Lafitte's face, it seemed like his silence spoke volumes. He had already made his decision.

"Then help us load up as many of these crystals as we can carry." Lafitte told him. Orion stood up as Marv started his search. He grabbed him, shoving him roughly, at which the other pirate pulled his pistol. He pointed to a patch of ground.

"That's a graveyard. I buried the dead there myself." He told him. "Take as much as you can carry from anywhere else, but don't disturb the graves."

"Why the change of heart?" Lafitte asked. Orion just looked to the graveyard and sighed.

"I suppose the crystals aren't doing them any good now." Orion replied as he started to gather some up. Lafitte just smiled.

"I think I'm going to like him." He stated.

"I don't trust him." Marv snorted. "This is a mistake."

"Perhaps." Lafitte told him. "But it isn't every day I come across someone that can fight like him."

Back in the command centre, Orion looked to the Rangers as he concluded this chapter of his story.

"So, I joined his crew." Orion told them. "If it wasn't for him, I'd still have been stranded on Andresea."

"So you became a pirate." Jake asked. "So how come you didn't arrive with Lafitte?"

"Yeah, why did Lafitte have another ship?" Troy asked him. "And how did you get your morpher?"

"It's a long story." Orion told him.

"Trust me, we've got time." Troy answered as he leant forward. "We're not going anywhere."


	6. Never Trust a Pirate

**A/N:** Sorry for the hiatus folks! I really did intend to get this out earlier, but I've really had to re-tool it a few times. Also, as a note for this chapter, if it's written in _Italics_ then presume the character is speaking in Andresean.

Back in the past, Orion was sitting on Lafitte's ship, stitching up a wicked looking wound in his arm after their latest raid. True to his word, Lafitte had concentrated most of his efforts on Armada ships. Orion knew that this wasn't really by choice; Lafitte had made it clear that his main interest was in profit. If any of the nearby planets had been WORTH raiding, he would have attacked without any further thought. Of course, in Orion's sector of the galaxy, there simply WASN'T anyone else worth raiding.

While Andresea had been one of the hardest hit worlds, being completely levelled by The Armada, leading to Orion believing they didn't really know about its value as far as its mineral wealth was concerned, the rest of the worlds had been completely subjugated. Even those that had simply surrendered in the face of The Armada's strength had been brought under heel. All the worlds under The Armada's command were required to pay a levy or tax to The Armada for their "protection". Most of the worlds were taxed so heavily that most of them weren't especially wealthy. That meant that the prize targets in the area were flotillas of collection ships.

"Have you finished cleaning yourself up?" Marv asked him as he came into the room. Orion was just finishing up the stitching, and just held the thread out.

"Just about." Orion told him, gesturing to the trailing end. "Would you mind?"

Marv picked up a nearby set of scissors and cut off the excess as he sat down. He just smirked.

"You know maybe things like this wouldn't happen if you fought with a real weapon instead of that toothpick." He teased his crew mate, pointing to Orion's spear in the corner. He had since given up the rough, home-made spear he had constructed from available materials back on Andresea, and replaced it with a trident made from Xyberian steel. Orion had opted to continue using this weapon because for months on Andresea, he had trained himself to use the spear as the only practical weapon he could construct himself. By the time he left, using it was second nature. "I mean, that big ape Kolo might have an armoured hide, but you don't."

"I kind of like it." Orion told him. Marv just pulled out his blasters.

"Look, why don't you just let me show you how to use a real weapon?" He asked. "That backwoods stuff might work against the X-borgs, but you've never even seen a Bruiser yet, and if you run into a Commander, you're screwed."

"Look, you might like blowing the shit out of everything that moves, but I like to know when I use my weapon, it's going to destroy what I want it to destroy." Orion told him.

"Suit yourself." Marv said with a shrug. Just then, Lafitte came into the room.

"Have you finished patching yourself up yet?" He asked Orion.

"Yeah, I'm good." Orion replied, pulling his shirt back on.

"Well then, perhaps you can get to the galley before we all starve." Lafitte told him. "We don't keep you around for your sparkling wit you know. Marv, come with me, I have a lead on a huge score."

"Sure, I'll be right there." He answered, before putting his blaster away. "The offer's still open if you decide you want to be used as something other than target practice."

"Thanks, but I'll give it a pass for now." Orion replied as they left. With that, he went to the Galley to start on their next meal.

His story moved on, and the Free Joker was approaching a huge flotilla of ships. Marv, Kolo and Orion were all on the bridge, surrounding Lafitte's seat at the controls.

"That's...that's a treasury ship!" Marv stammered, seeing the huge number of escort ships with it. The Armada's taxation followed a very strict protocol. Ships would go to the subjugated worlds and collect money, minerals, jewels, whatever the planet could afford in terms of tribute, and then they would go to rendezvous with a larger treasury ship to take their ill-gotten gains to wherever it needed to go. The Treasury ships were massive ships, and were always well-guarded due to the nature of their cargo. Going after one was a tough prospect with a whole fleet of ships. With a single vessel, it was looking a lot more like a suicide mission.

"I know you like to think big Lafitte, but are you nuts?" Orion asked him. Lafitte just laughed.

"Will you two relax?" He asked. "I've already hacked their systems. Their surveillance is blind to our approach."

"But...what about the small matter of the whole escort contingent?" Marv asked him. Lafitte just pointed to the screen. After a moment, they saw around half the ships suddenly broke off and flew at top speed in another direction.

"What happened?" Marv asked.

"They just received a report of a sighting of the Free Joker in the next solar system." He informed them. "All available ships have been called to apprehend us."

"Well, half a contingent is still a lot of ships." Orion reminded him.

"And if all we had was the Free Joker, that would be a problem." Lafitte answered. "Of course, once we teleport you and Marv onto that ship and you commandeer their weapons..."

"We'll have more than enough firepower to take them out!" Marv said with a huge smirk. "That's the kind of plan I like."

"Well, let's do it." Orion stated, grabbing his trident. "A score this big is bound to hurt them."

A little later, Orion and Marv were on the ship, battling their way through some X-borg guards. They had teleported as close to The Bridge as they possibly could, but that still meant they had a fair way to go.

Marv clamped a magnetic bomb to the door to the Bridge, while Orion took care of some X-borgs, spinning it expertly as he looked around for more.

"That's the last of them." Orion stated. "I don't like this."

"Well if you stand there, you'll like this a lot less!" Marv told him, pulling out the ariel to the controller with his teeth. Orion took cover behind a bulkhead as Marv activated the bomb, blowing out the door.

"NOW!" He yelled. He and Orion ran for the doorway, before diving, sliding along the floor. Part of the safety system on a lot of Armada ships was a series of back-up security bulkheads that would slide into place if there was an explosion, or sudden decompression. It was designed to secure the ship in case of an attack. Sliding under the bulkhead as it came down, they got into the bridge as it slammed into place. It meant they were sealed in until they could over-ride the system...but it also meant that now they were sealed in with the bridge crew, who had no means of getting reinforcements. They were using their own security against them.

Marv flipped to his feet, opening fire with his blasters, while Orion waded in with his trident, slicing down the crew. Within moments, they were standing alone on the bridge.

"We're clear." Marv stated as he put his blasters away.

"I don't like this." Orion stated. "This was too easy."

"Lafitte had this planned to a T." Marv told him as he went to the controls.

"This is a Treasury ship, and there wasn't one Commander on the bridge?" He asked. "There wasn't even a bruiser?"

"They're probably somewhere else looking for us!" Marv told him, tapping some keys as he tried to over-ride the security on the controls to access the weapons to start clearing out the escort ship. Lafitte had told them he would make a start, but there were a lot of them, even with half the fleet gone. "Come on Orion, how many times do I have to tell you? Don't look a gift-horse in the..."

There was a bright blue flash and Marv was thrown from the controls, landing in a crumpled heap on the floor. Orion just looked to his fallen body.

"MARV!" He yelled as he threw his trident aside and ran over to him. He found that he was still alive, but barely conscious. "Marv, what happened?"

"Get DOWN!" Marv told him, grabbing him and pulling him aside as he opened fire with his blaster. Orion turned to see a secret panel had opened up and half a dozen bruisers had rushed into the room. A blast hit Marv, punching through his shoulder. Orion, seeing that there was no way to get to his trident, grabbed Marv's blasters and fired into the chest of the nearest Bruiser, smashing it, but knocking the wind out of himself as he overbalanced and landed on the ground. Having never used blasters, he was unprepared for the recoil, especially from the hand-cannons that Marv seemed to favour, and use effortlessly. It seemed his comrade was a lot stronger than he looked.

He found himself pinned to the ground by a couple of the Bruisers, while others grabbed Marv and held him up. They marched them to the middle of the room, where Damaras met them.

"Well well, if it isn't the notorious pirates." He greeted them. "I am a little disappointed to be honest. I thought you'd be much more difficult to capture."

"You haven't got all of us!" Marv spat as he struggled in the grip of his captors. "Lafitte's still..."

"Lafitte?" Damaras laughed. "How do you think we arranged this little ruse?"

Orion just glared hatefully at Lafitte as he and Kolo entered the room. He approached Damaras, and held out a hand.

"Some people are happy to stay out of jail." He stated as Damaras took out a large pouch, and handed it to him. "I expect to be paid to leave."

"You sold us out!" Orion screamed angrily, trying to break free to attack him. Lafitte just laughed.

"It's nothing personal my boy. If I'm honest, it was fun while it lasted." He stated. "It's only business. You see...I had a better offer."

He opened the bag and pulled out a Ranger Key, the Mighty Morphin' Green Ranger key.

"You see, in exchange for a commission to a new employer, and a new crew, one that's a little easier to control, all I had to do was give them you." He told them. "I'm not even asking for the reward. These will be much more useful."

"Just take your prize and go." Damaras snapped. "Before I change my mind and have you arrested too."

"Oh, there is just one more thing." He stated. "I was also required to give them the ship. Where I'm going, I won't need it you see. So I guess, I'll be on my way."

With a low bow, he turned and left the room, taking Kolo with him. Orion renewed his struggle.

"Well, an Andresian. This is a novelty." Damaras stated. "I was sure you were all gone."

"You'll all pay for what you did to my planet!" Orion screamed at him.

"I highly doubt that." He replied. He looked to Marv, who seemed to be barely alive by now. "This one...it's just as well his reward is dead or alive. I doubt he'll make it back to the flagship."

"Orion." Marv croaked out, straining to look up. "Do me a favour. Make Lafitte pay!"

With that, he activated an EMP grenade that he had secreted in his hand. It knocked out all electronic signals within a few feet for a period of thirty seconds, which right now was Damaras and the Bruisers. Orion ran, snatching up his trident and ran down the corridor, unable to teleport for a while because of the EMP.

As his systems started to clear up, and he regained control, Damaras got to his feet, while the bruisers concentrated on grabbing Marv. Damaras checked the surveillance systems.

"He's teleported." He confirmed, knowing he likely would as soon as he was able. "He's probably gone back to the Free Joker!"

"So what do we do with him?" One of the Bruisers asked, holding up Marv. "He won't last much longer. Shall we take him to the morgue?"

"Not yet." Damaras said, holding up a hand. "Call Lavira...I have an idea how he can still be of use to us."

Meanwhile, on the Free Joker, Orion teleported back onto the bridge, finding the ship deserted. It looked like this was the one thing Lafitte wasn't lying about. Wherever he and Kolo had gone, they clearly weren't going in the Free Joker.

As he sat by the controls though, he checked the systems. It looked like before they had gone, Lafitte had cleared out pretty much anything of use. The power cells were almost completely depleted, and the weapons had all been disabled. He used what little power he had to blast off, leaving the fleet behind him. He knew he wouldn't get far, and started to look for a planet with a breathable atmosphere to land on. It seemed that he was on his own again.

Back on the Red Galleon, Orion accepted a glass of lemonade from Emma.

"Thank you." He said gratefully, before taking a small sip.

"I always knew Lafitte was a piece of work." Noah stated. "But that's low even for him."

"So you got away?" Jake asked.

"I managed to find a nearby planet with an atmosphere I could breathe just before I completely ran out of power." Orion told them. "I barely made it to the surface before the power cells died. Unfortunately, the planet was uninhabited. It was like being back on Andresia. I was right back to where I started. I was there for months, how long...I didn't really know. The solar cycles on that planet were hard to track. I thought I was never going to get off that planet. Then one day, I saw something I never thought I would."

On the surface of the planet, Orion was just returning to his camp with the bounty of his hunt. It was a large, furred creature with long tusks he had taken to calling a Tuskarn. It would feed him for a couple of days, its naturally salty flesh acting as a kind of natural preservative that stopped it spoiling too quickly. As he got back to the camp site though, he found a cloaked stranger sitting by his campfire.

"_A successful hunt I see._" The stranger greeted him in perfect Andresian, albeit with a strange accent he couldn't recognise.

"_I thought this planet was deserted._" Orion stated. The stranger just gestured to him to take a seat.

"_It is...at least...it is deserted of all intelligent life._" The Stranger told him. "_You and I have a lot in common. We are both the last of our kind._"

"_What kind is that?_" Orion asked. The stranger pulled down his hood, revealing a black helmet, with a visor he couldn't see a face through.

"_Eltarian._" Gosei told him. "_Forgive the helmet, but the fresh air does not favour me as it does you._"

"_Eltarian?_" Orion asked him. "_What do you want with me?_"

"_I want to offer you a way off this world._" He told him. "_I understand your last partnership did not end well, so I am not offering you anything like that. I will be leaving alone, what you choose to do with my gifts is up to you._"

He got up, and handed Orion a strange device, and placed a figurine of a warrior in strange silver clothes in the other.

"Hold these together, they will speak to you, and guide you in their use." Gosei told him. "I won't tell you how to use them, that is up to you. However, if you wish to find the place you can strike the most harm against the heart of The Armada, they will guide you there."

The stranger got up, and waved a hand in the direction of the Free Joker, which lit up as he did.

"I have provided your ship with all the power you need." Gosei told him. "You have a long journey ahead of you Orion. Choose your path well."

With that, he disappeared in a flash of light. Orion took the key and the morpher in his hand, and placed them together.

"When I did, I started to get visions, visions of warriors in helmets, warriors who called themselves Power Rangers." Orion told them. "They started to talk to me, to tell me secrets, guide me and train me in the skills I would need. They led me here, to this planet, to you."

"Guys, check this out." Noah stated, showing them the morpher. "His morpher's different than ours. It has all different buttons...ones marked by different Ranger helmets...all of them Sixth Rangers."

"They're the ones that came to me." He told them.

"So...his morpher has some kind of connection to the Sixth Rangers?" Gia asked. "I guess that makes sense, since he's a Sixth Ranger."

"Maybe we'll know more if we try his morpher with the other Sixth Ranger keys." Emma suggested. "I mean, we got the Sixth Ranger keys from Lafitte right? Maybe they are connected to him."

"Wait, we still don't know who this guy is!" Jake snapped. "All we've got is his word to go on! Why would Gosei go all the way across the galaxy to give a morpher, JORDAN'S morpher to some...castaway?"

"I don't know. He never told me that. All he said was that this would lead me to where I need to be." Orion told them. "If you're worried about handing over the keys, then how about we trade?"

He put a hand in his pocket, and pulled something out, before throwing a bunch of keys on the table. They rattled as they landed. Troy and the others looked to them, and then back to him.

"Fifteen keys, courtesy of Lafitte." He told them. The Rangers all pulled into a huddle.

"Troy, are we seriously thinking about this?" Jake asked. "He just turns up with a morpher and we're meant to trust him?"

"Gosei's never been the most straightforward with his plans, but a lot of things seem to fit." Noah told them.

"If he's not a real Ranger, he's put on a heck of a show." Gia conceded. "He wasted a ton of their troops, and a Commander! Also, he's gone to a lot of effort with that story for it to be all bull."

"Not to mention he gave us fifteen Ranger keys we had no idea how to find." Emma reminded them.

"Presuming they're real!" Jake stated. He looked to Troy. "Look, I'm not saying he definitely isn't on the level, I'm just saying..."

Just then, they heard an alert. Tensou checked the scanner.

"There's been an attack on a building site." He told them. "It looks like Vekar's not done with Paris yet."

Troy thought about it for a moment, before holding out his hand to Noah.

"Give me his morpher and his key." Troy told him.

"Troy..."

"Trust me." Troy replied, taking them, and going over to Orion. He handed them to him.

"I'm giving you your morpher and this key, ONLY this key." He told him. "If you're on the level, this is your chance to prove it. Show me what you're made of, and we'll talk about those Sixth Ranger keys."

"Just take me to where they are." Orion answered, gripping his morpher tightly.


	7. Orion's First Battle

Construction workers ran in a panic, while others hid among the scaffolds, building supplies and construction vehicles as The Armada's latest attack came. Paris had more than made up for the fact that it hadn't seen any Ranger battles up close and personal across the last couple of days. Prince Vekar had sent huge numbers of X-borgs into the city in his attempt to overwhelm the Rangers through exhaustion and sheer weight of numbers. They were hopeful they had seen the last of The Armada by now, and were hoping to be able to rebuild and clean up after them. It wasn't as though Paris hadn't seen its fair share of destruction and violence across its history, but it had been a long time since they had seen this much in a couple of short days.

The contingent was small this time around, perhaps only a dozen X-borgs, but it seemed that this time The Prince had sprung for some bruisers to accompany the latest Commander. He was a bizarre looking creature, even among his peers. He was a huge creature, almost as broad as he was tall, and covered in a thick, metallic armour which seemed more of an organic form than any forged armour. Half of which his armour, and most of his head was bronze, while the other half was a deep, metallic grey. Each of his arms had wickedly spiked, scoop-like shields attached to them, weapons formed as much for defence as attack.

"You miserable Earthlings!" He called out. "Your fear will bring the Rangers running! Don't let anyone escape!"

The X-borgs managed to form up a perimeter, stopping the workers from fleeing the site. They started to close in menacingly. It wasn't until they were almost on top of them that they heard someone yelling.

"Hey!" Troy called out to him, announcing their presence as they arrived, prepared for battle. "I see you're a bit short-handed."

"I see you also brought some of the big guns with you." Jake added. "I'm guessing Prince Vekar is running short on toys."

"You DARE to mock the Prince?" He snarled. "I am leading this assault to aid his recovery! Your insistence in opposing his divine rule has upset him!"

"Upset HIM?" Emma asked. "He invaded our HOME! He's killed God knows how many people!"

"He is so upset he cannot bring himself to leave his chambers!" Osogain roared angrily, ignoring Emma's comment. The Rangers, other than Orion just looked to each other, before starting to laugh.

"Are you seriously telling me he...he's SULKING?" Gia laughed, struggling to keep it together. "Really? He can't take being beaten so he's gone to his bedroom to cry?"

"How...HOW DARE YOU MOCK HIM?" Osogain screamed.

"Well, it's kind of easy really." Jake chuckled, wiping away a tear. "He does kind of invite it."

Osogain looked like he was about to say something else, but before he did, he paused and started to look Orion up and down judgementally. He eventually spoke.

"Can it be? Is there really an Andresian on your team?" He asked. "It's kind of hard to tell under all that grime and..."

"I'm Andresian, what of it?" Orion snapped. Osogain just stood up straight.

"I was sure we got all of you when we carpet-bombed your planet into oblivion." He taunted him. "I guess I get a second crack at you."

"You were there?" Orion asked him coldly, pulling out his morpher. Osogain just stared at him, unflinching. "Then you'll share their fate!"

Placing his Ranger key into a compartment in his morpher, it scanned the key, morphing him into the Silver Corsair Ranger. The other Rangers also morphed, preparing for the battle ahead as Osogain powered up, crackling with electricity.

"Let's see how you deal with these powered-up X-borgs!" He called out. Troy blasted him with his blaster before he got a chance to launch an attack, giving them some room to deal with the rest of the Armada's troops. Orion bellowed aggressively as he rushed forward, carving his way through them with his Silver Spear.

"They are tougher than before." Gia conceded as she blasted a couple down. The others also noticed the difference. Whatever the energy they saw surging through Osogain was clearly affected nearby troops. They could imagine that was probably one of the reasons he had a position in The Armada as a Commander. Not only did he bring leadership, strengthening his troops with his strategic knowledge and battle experience, but his very presence LITERALLY strengthened those under his command.

"Maybe, but that won't save them!" Orion answered as he smashed through some more of them. He saw Gia on top of a truck, surrounded. "Seven on one, that's not fair!"

He leapt up, smashing his Silver Spear straight through one of the Bruisers, before flipping him away.

"Thanks." Gia stated, realising the Bruiser was close to getting the drop on her. "Cool moves...uh...OK?" Before she had finished, he had flipped away to another part of the battlefield, where Emma was surrounded. He swung his spear over her head, narrowly missing her, and cut down a couple of X-borgs.

"Whoa, thanks!" Emma stated. "Maybe not so close next time?...What, where'd he go?"

Once again, he had broken off into a run, this time heading for where Jake was fighting. He cut down a few of them, just as Jake managed to clear some room with his blaster.

"I've got things covered...what...where'd he go now?" He rushed out as he gathered his bearings, realising Orion had moved on again.

By now, he was over by Noah, who was dealing with his own group with his sword. As Orion went for the same Bruiser as him, running him through with his Silver Spear, Noah had to react quickly, pulling his strike as his sword, which WAS going for the Bruiser, instead found itself heading right for Orion's neck.

"Hey!" Noah yelled. "You're not working alone anymore!"

Orion was already gone though, heading for the remaining group. Troy was standing in the centre, and came to Orion's side. He had managed to pull his weight, while keeping an eye on his team. He had seen Orion in action, and knew he was a strong warrior, but it seemed like there was an issue. While he could hardly blame him, given what he had told them of his past, Orion fought with a lot of anger, and seemed to lack direction in places. His strength and speed had managed to keep him ahead of the game and stopped him getting into trouble, but he was all over the place. Instead of taking up a strategic position and covering his own area, he was all over the place, destroying enemies wherever he saw them.

He took up position by Orion, and caught his attention, grabbing his arm.

"Let's take them down, TOGETHER!" Troy told him. The other Rangers joined them, setting up a perimeter as they cut them down. Before long, the last of the robots exploded, leaving Osogain to face them with two Bruisers, the last of his contingent.

"This isn't over!" Osogain warned them.

"You're right, this is just the beginning!" Orion yelled as he ran in to attack.

"Orion!" Noah called out, trying to stop him, but he was a fraction too slow. "He's...he's trying to take them on his own!"

"That guy said he destroyed his home!" Emma reminded him. "How would you feel if you could get your hands on one of the guys that bombarded Harwood?"

"This is no place for personal grudges." Troy told them. "I've got an idea."

He reached to his belt buckle, pulling out a Ranger key. Noah saw it and smiled.

"That could work." He commented. The other Rangers all pulled out Ranger keys, and placed them into their morphers.

Meanwhile, Orion was battling frantically with both of the remaining Bruisers and Osogain by himself, completely oblivious to the others. He was knocked to the ground by Osogain, finding himself staring up at the two Bruisers, who were approaching to finish him off. They both exploded in a hail of fire before they got to him though. He turned to see where the firepower had come from, and couldn't believe his eyes. He had seen these warriors before, in his visions. Before him were the Mercury Ranger, the Silver Space Ranger, Wild Force Wolf Ranger, the Silver RPM Ranger, and the Titanium Ranger, all holding smoking blasters.

"Troy, in his guise as the Titanium Ranger leapt forward, smashing Osogain away from Orion, helping him up.

"I've seen these warriors, but...you're them?" He asked. "I don't understand..."

"One of the fringe benefits of being on a team." Troy told him as they all powered down into Corsair Mode once more. He handed him the Gold Samurai key. "Want to give it a shot as a team?"

"Go Go Samurai!" The others called out, using their Ranger keys to turn into the Samurai Rangers. Orion was unsure, having only ever used his own Ranger key, but he followed suit. He placed the Gold Ranger key into his morpher, letting it scan it, and found himself becoming the Gold Samurai. Energy coursed through him, and he found the powers flooding him with knowledge, giving him the skills he needed to use the strange new powers at his disposal.

"Follow my lead!" Troy called out. "Quintuple Slash!"

Orion watched the other five all rush forward, powering up their Spin Swords, slicing straight through him. He couldn't explain it, but he seemed to know immediately what to do. Placing a Power Disk onto his Barracuda Blade, he flew through the air.

"Barracuda Bite!" Orion called out as he hacked him down aggressively. Osogain was barely able to stand by the time Orion was finished with his attack, returning to the rest of the team. They all powered down into Corsair Mode.

"You think this is over?" He started to say in ragged breaths. "You'll end up like the rest of your worthless planet Andresian!" Orion's grip on his Silver Spear just tightened.

Orion ran towards him, screaming in a rage. The others were about to join him, but Troy gestured to them to stop.

"Let him do this." Troy told them. "Let him get it out of his system."

"But..."

"We're here if he needs help." Troy interrupted Emma. "Let's just let him get this out of his system."

Orion sliced into him with every stroke, each one aiming to cut him clean in half. Every ounce of his strength, every bit of his power went into every strike. He was determined to make him pay for everything that had happened to his planet. All he could think of was every burned out home he had seen, every grave he had to dig. He attacked in a frenzy, like he was trying to land a blow for every man, woman and child on Andresia that had been murdered in The Armada's genocidal campaign. Osogain fell again, his armour dented and cracked under Orion's assault. He tried to get up, only able to get to his knees. He looked up to Orion as he converted his Silver Spear into blaster mode.

"Stop! I've had enough!" He started to beg. "Have mercy! Please!"

"You have the nerve to ask for mercy?" Orion asked him. "How many Andresians do you think asked for exactly the same thing before you and your kind murdered them?"

He placed a Ranger Key into his Silver Spear Blaster, and turned it. Osogain just closed his eyes, awaiting his fate.

"Super Spear Blaster!" He yelled as he pulled the trigger. He started to glow, all of his energy channelling into the blast. It fired off so aggressively that the recoil sent Orion flying through the air, his agility allowing him to control the path into a huge back somersault, landing on his feet some distance away. The blast hit Osogain, completely obliterating him. The Rangers all watched as Orion turned back towards them. Before any of them could say anything though, a laser struck the ground right where Osogain had fallen. Orion turned back to see him not only re-forming, but starting to grow.

"Wait...how...what's..."

"We'll explain later!" Troy told him. "Calling Red Galleon."

"But...I destroyed him!" He yelled.

"Rest up." Jake told him. "We'll take it from here."

Orion went to a short wall, a little way off and de-morphed, finally allowing himself to rest. He knew something of Zords and Zord battles...some of it seemed familiar from what his visions of the past Sixth Rangers had shown him. Unfortunately, right now, it was something that he didn't have any way of helping with. All he could do was sit and watch as the other Rangers called forth the Mystic Dragon, destroying Osogain once and for all in a huge fireball.

Up on The Armada Command Ship, Lavira sighed as she watched Osogain being destroyed for the second time. She looked to Damaras.

"I...I can't believe it!" He stammered. "I was sure Osogain would succeed! If we had more X-borgs energised and ready to support him..."

"Well, we didn't did we?" Lavira asked him.

"That Andresian...he could be trouble." Damaras stated.

"I'm going to check on the Prince." Lavira grumbled. "He's been in his room all day without anything to eat. We don't want him to have something ELSE to complain about, do we?"

With that, she turned and left the bridge, leaving Damaras and Argus alone to monitor the situation on Earth.

Later, back on the Red Galleon, the Rangers, all except for Orion, were all sitting around the table in the main room. They had an important issue to discuss, one that could very well determine how they proceeded with the rest of the war. Orion had brought a lot of power to the team, but they knew all too well that power, any power, was inherently dangerous. They just needed to be certain it was dangerous to the enemy and not to them or the people they were trying to save.

"Well, he is a strong fighter." Gia told them. "I know he was a little...all over the place."

"All over the place?" Noah asked. "I almost took his head off! He almost clobbered Emma!"

"But he didn't!" Gia responded.

"Look, I don't know about this guy." Jake told them. "I know he's a good fighter, and those powers of his are pretty sick, but the guy's a loose cannon!"

"He did seem like kind of a solo act out there." Noah agreed.

"Guys, he's been on his own for...well...even he doesn't know how long. He could have been on his own for years." Emma reminded them. "We all know how tough we've had things over the last six months, but we've always had each other. Can we be surprised that he's not used to working on a team?"

"I guess I hadn't thought about it that way." Noah conceded.

"Guys, he went totally ballistic! He's on a one-man revenge mission!" Jake protested. "And let's not forget, those powers he's using? Jordan made those for HIMSELF! He's jacked Jordan's morpher!"

"He didn't exactly jack it, Gosei gave it to him!" Gia responded.

"I don't care!" Jake snapped back.

"Look, we're all disappointed that I'm not back." They heard a voice saying. They all looked around, at which Jordan's projection appeared in the chair that had been vacant since they had begun, the one he had intended for himself when he believed he would be joining them. "But it is what it is."

"Jordan?" Gia asked.

"Sorry, communications are a little infrequent." He said as he leaned forward.

"Jordan, what happened?" Troy asked. "We thought you made that Silver Morpher for yourself."

"I did." Jordan told them. "But...as you can see, plans changed."

He got up and started to make his way around the table.

"My studies have reached an important stage. I thought I was almost done, but recently, a whole new section of The Library opened up. More of my role in the war is coming to light...I still don't know everything, but I do know one thing. I will be back, but it won't be as the Silver Ranger."

"But it's YOUR morpher!" Jake reiterated.

"This war is about more than my ego." Jordan told them. "I'd love to be with you, all of you know that. Believe me, Pythia's interesting company, but she's completely batshit. All I know is that I will be back one day before this is done. I've got a role to play, but until dad lets me know what that is, it looks like I'm staying here."

"So what about your morpher?" Troy asked him. "Why did Gosei give it to Orion?"

"I really don't know. I don't know much about the guy. I only just got the reports back from your battles." He said honestly.

"So he just wanted some guy in the suit and picked the first guy with a vendetta he could find?" Jake asked. Jordan just looked to him and smiled.

"I appreciate the loyalty, but I'm not perfect." Jordan reminded him. "Anyway, you need an odd number if you don't want to risk a split vote, so...I guess I'll be going."

"Jordan!" Gia called out. He stopped as he was about to disappear. "It was good seeing you again."

"This is your choice." He told them. "I'll trust your judgement."

With that, he disappeared. The rest of the Rangers all turned back to the table.

"Well, I think he could be a good help." Gia stated. "I vote Orion's the Silver Ranger."

"He was a little wild, but I guess none of us were great at the beginning." Emma added. "Maybe if we help him, he'll come around. We could use the help. I vote he stays."

"I'm sorry; I just don't buy into this." Jake stated a little coldly. "I'm not saying we couldn't use the weapons, but do we really need this guy? He's the only one that can use them? I say we cut him loose. I vote no."

"He needs to fall into line. We were lucky that was a small battle." Noah told them. "But maybe he can learn from it. For now I say, we could use the help. I vote for Orion to stay."

"We're all sympathetic, but this isn't about his personal vendetta." Troy announced. "Gosei's not always been the most forthcoming, and I've not always understood why he does things, but he's always worked for the greater good in the past. I'm inclined to trust his judgement on this. I vote he stays."

"Four to one." Gia concluded. "We have our answer."

"Then I guess I'll just go and break the news to our new Silver Ranger." Troy announced, getting up from the table. "I'll go and get Orion."

Meanwhile, in another room, Orion was sitting, waiting on word from the others. He knew that they were discussing him, more precisely; they were discussing whether or not his future lay with the team. He looked up as he heard the door, and Troy came in.

"It's official." He told him, offering him a hand. "Welcome to the team."


	8. Orion's Makeover

The following morning, Orion stirred and came to slowly. He had no idea what time it was, but considering how bright the light coming in from the port hole was, and how well rested he was, he figured it had to be pretty late.

He settled back down into his bed, pulling the covers around himself and smiled a little. While the sleeping arrangements in the Red Galleon weren't exactly luxurious, it had been a very long time since he had conditions this comfortable. He hadn't even seen a real bed since the destruction of Andresia. He had no idea how long he had been sleeping, but he felt far more rested than he had in as long as he could remember.

As he was settling in, he heard a gentle knock on the door.

"Can I come in?" He heard Emma calling through.

"Come in." He greeted her. Emma opened the door and walked in, carrying a tray with her. She had a huge smile on her face. "What time is it?"

"It's a little after noon. We thought you might appreciate a long lie." She told him, setting down the tray on a table. "I didn't know what you'd like, so I made pancakes because...well...I've not met anyone that doesn't like pancakes. I also brought OJ..."

Her words tailed off as he got out of the bed and made his way to the table. She immediately turned away, hiding her face.

"Um...you said it was safe to come in." She told him.

"It is." He replied as he grabbed a whole pancake, and inspected it for a moment, before taking a cautious bite. His eyes lit up. "Wow, this is...this tastes amazing!"

"Orion...you're not wearing...you're naked!" She stammered as she stared at the wall, feeling her face becoming decidedly warm. He took a sip of orange juice as he crammed the rest of his first pancake into his mouth almost whole.

"It was too warm under the covers." He mumbled through his mouthful. Emma figured it had to have been a while since he ate with others, and it wasn't as though he would have had much use for airs and graces when he was stranded on uninhabited planets. She had been camping many times in her life, and knew that often it didn't take more than a few hours for normal table manners to become secondary. Of course she had only been camping for a few days at a time, Orion had been stranded for months, possibly more, without a single other person for company.

"Right...um...it's just...we don't normally...um..." She continued to mumble. "I'll just leave you to get dressed. Bring us your dishes when you're finished."

As she left the room, Orion realised something was off with her. He made a note to ask about it when he was done. Taking another pancake, he rolled it up, and dunked it into his orange juice, before taking a bite.

Outside, in the main room, Gia was having her wrist strapped up after training. While the Rangers didn't try to hurt each other, occasionally it was unavoidable. She flexed her wrist as Troy finished up with the bandage.

"Did you see Orion?" Gia asked.

"Oh, I saw a lot of Orion." She replied, looking around before pulling in close. "He...he was naked!"

"Excuse me, back up a moment...he was what now?" Troy asked his girlfriend. She realised what it had to sound like.

"No, he didn't try anything on or anything...if anything..." She paused for a moment as she thought about it. "He didn't seem to realise it was a big deal."

"Was it a 'big' deal?" Gia teased her. Emma just kicked her under the table, causing Gia to yell. She gestured to her wrist. "Hey, injured girl here!"

"I didn't look alright?" Emma rushed out. She took a breath. "I don't know, maybe it isn't such a big deal where he's from."

"He said he was a miner." Noah reminded them as he continued to do some work on Orion's morpher. "Maybe they had communal showers."

"He's kind of been on his own for a while." Gia stated. "I doubt he'd have worried too much about stuff like that when he was stranded, maybe he just forgot people can be a little off about stuff like that."

"Maybe he doesn't have pyjamas." Jake called over from the corner, where he was making himself a smoothie. Everyone just turned to look at him as he turned off the blender. He just shrugged. "What? It's not like he had luggage with him or anything."

They all paused for a moment to think about what Jake had just said. Orion didn't have any bags with him when they found him. He hadn't brought anything on board when they had brought him to the Galleon to find out who he was. Thinking about it, with the exception of his morpher and the clothes he was wearing, they couldn't remember him carrying anything.

"He doesn't have any clothes." Troy said as a sense of realisation came over him. Orion wasn't trying anything on with Emma, he just didn't have anything to wear while he was sleeping.

"He probably lost most of it when he was stranded." Emma concluded. "I can't believe I didn't think of that."

"Well he's going to kind of stand out if he walks around looking like Tom Hanks in Castaway." Noah said as he thought about it.

"Not to mention his clothes have seen better days." Gia added.

"And if he really doesn't have any issues with the whole nude thing, then laundry days could get awkward if he's only got one outfit." Emma concluded. Just then, Orion walked in, carrying his tray, with the dirty dishes, wearing his filthy, ragged clothing.

"Thanks Emma, that was great." He told her. He stopped as he saw the way everyone was looking at him. "What?"

"OK, I guess we're taking him shopping." Troy stated.

"Shopping?" Orion asked. "What for?"

"Oh, believe me, you DEFINITELY need to go shopping, as a matter of urgency!" Gia responded. "And a haircut probably wouldn't go amiss either."

"Here." Troy said as he pulled a gold, jewel-encrusted goblet out of a cupboard and handed it to Emma. "Take that to a pawn brokers, then get everything you need."

"And while we're at it, why don't we have a little talk about the social paradigm of wearing clothes around other people." Emma said as she and Gia took Orion out of the room. Jake just snorted in disgust before taking a long gulp of his smoothie.

"First he gets a long lie, now he's going shopping." He grumbled.

"Jake, we need to give him a chance." Noah told him, continuing his work. "He's only just got here. We need to let him settle in."

"Well according to Emma he's REALLY settled in." Jake said sarcastically. "What are you doing anyway?"

"I'm calibrating Orion's morpher to our systems." Noah explained. "Once I'm finished, he'll be able to call the Ranger keys from the chest on the Galleon to his belt buckle just like we can. I also want to figure out all the functions on it."

"Functions?" Jake asked.

"It's not like our morphers. It has all sorts of different buttons on it, look." He showed Jake the morpher, which had numerous buttons on it, like a cell phone, but they all seemed to have a different Ranger's helmet on them. "It's the helmets of the Sixth Rangers, and Orion said it's the Sixth Rangers he sees in his visions. I think the morpher has some kind of special connection to the past Sixth Rangers."

"I guess that makes sense. I mean, I guess he IS a Sixth Ranger right." Jake replied.

"It's the darnedest thing though...his morpher has a lot more power than it needs to facilitate his Ranger mode...even more than it needs for Legendary transformations." Noah continued. "I don't think we've seen a fraction of what his morpher can do yet."

The Red Galleon had returned to the United States, arriving in Boston after their rather eventful visit to Europe. The Rangers had loved getting a chance to see Paris, but they figured that the City of Lights had probably seen enough Ranger action recently, and figured sticking around was only going to invite further incursions. Orion was dragged by Emma and Gia through the streets, pointing out all the shops to him as they went. They figured that the first issue to address before they dealt with his wardrobe was to get his hair into a manageable state, and dragged him into a boutique.

They had already gotten a fairly substantial amount of money for the goblet, and looking at Orion now, not to mention the reaction they got from anyone that saw him with them, they figured it was going to be a lot of work getting him to look less like some random guy they had dragged out of a homeless shelter. As soon as they entered, they could see the reaction from one of the stylists, seeing Orion's tangled, unkempt hair. The stylist was dressed very flamboyantly, in a red silk shirt, with very baggy sleeves, and intricate gold embroidery, with black leather trousers. He had feathery, expertly styled brown hair. As soon as he saw Orion, his jaw virtually hit the floor.

"Excuse me, our friend here would like..."

"Honey, your friend doesn't need a stylist, he needs a complete tearodown." The stylist interrupted Emma with a huge gasp. "Has he been shipwrecked on a desert island or something?"

"A deserted planet actually." Orion responded honestly. Gia saw the look the stylist gave him as Emma face-palmed, hearing Orion say this. They hadn't thought to explain to him that he probably shouldn't be too forthcoming about details of his past. Gia pulled the stylist aside.

"Sorry, but um..." She looked around. She saw a newspaper on the table, one with their latest wanted posters on it. She picked it up, and held it beside her face, taking off her baseball cap so he could get a good look at her face, next to the poster now declaring her to be worth a bounty of 30 million dollars. It was a calculated risk, while some people still blamed the Rangers for the invasion, and some were just greedy enough to try and claim the bounty from Vekar, they found that in a lot of places, the civilians seemed to realise that they were trying to help and tended to give them a free pass.

"You're the Rangers?" He asked in a low voice that barely carried on his breath. Gia just nodded, at which the stylist smiled brightly.

"You see that guy? He's the new guy, the Silver Ranger." Gia told her. She pulled out a huge stack of cash. "I know it'll be a lot of work, but we can..."

"Please, do you really think I'm going to charge the Power Rangers? I would be honoured to work on him." He rushed out in a tone that indicated how excited he was. Despite his earlier assessment how much work it was going to be, Gia had a feeling that he was excited at the prospect of one of the Rangers rocking one of his styles on national television. He looked to Orion thoughtfully for a moment, trying to get an idea of his build, bone structure, skin tone and anything else that would lead him to a style that would work. Orion just looked to Gia and Emma a little sceptically as the stylist seemed to give him the same look some of his fellow miners gave a chunk of rock before figuring out the best way to proceed. The stylist let out a little sigh. "Well sweetie, never say I don't enjoy a challenge. Hmm...I think I have something in mind. What's your name?"

"Orion." He told her.

"Well Orion, take a seat." He told him, guiding him to a chair and sitting him down. Orion got a panicked look on his face as the chair went back, resting his neck and head into a sink. "I'll begin with this disaster zone you call hair...and those nails, oh my God...alright this is going to be a lot of work. Cheryl! Get the medicated shampoo, and clear my appointments for the rest of the day."

"Um...I'm not sure..."

"Please, a new Ranger needs a new look." The stylist assured him. "Just lie back and relax. This is going to be my Michaelangelo's David."

Emma and Gia took a seat as the stylist went to the side and started talking to her co-workers, gesturing wildly to the girls and Orion. Emma picked up an environmental magazine.

"It looks like we're causing a stir." She stated.

"So much for keeping a low profile." Gia responded, looking for something to read. Before she could find something though, another couple of stylists came over.

"Hi, we're really sorry to disturb you." One of them began. "We were just wondering...would you like us to...um..."

"We just came in for our friend." Emma told them.

"There'd be no charge!" One of them insisted. "We just really wanted to be able to say we've done a style for the Power Rangers."

The girls looked to each other, considering this for a moment, before nodding and getting up.

"Alright, that would be great!" Gia answered as they headed over to the chairs to take a seat.

Back on the Red Galleon, Jake was up on deck with Tensou. The little mechanical parrot had his wings spread open, and he was holding up a mechanism that looked a lot like a catapult. Jake had morphed into his Green Corsair mode, but removed his helmet.

"Ready Jake?" Tensou asked.

"Pull!" Jake said in response. With that, Tensou started firing off clay pigeons. The Red Galleon was a significant distance out over the bay, hidden by cloud cover, so he knew that it would be safe, since there were minimal chances anyone would be hit by falling debris. He levelled his blaster, taking careful aim and opening fire. Shot after shot rang out as he fired for them. As Tensou finished the set, he cursed loudly.

"Three out of ten." Tensou told him. "You're getting worse Jake."

"It's this damned blaster!" He protested. "The balance must be off or something!"

"Well something's off, that's for sure." Troy said with a smile. "You never score less than a nine."

"He has this morning." Tensou chimed in. "He hasn't scored above a six."

Jake just pulled a face as Tensou said this, informing the others of his disastrous performance. Troy just sighed and shook his head.

"Look on the bright side, at least you weren't dragged along on that shopping trip." Troy chuckled. "I hate shopping with a vengeance. Can you imagine having to get a whole wardrobe?"

"That poor guy." Noah agreed. "Orion never stood a chance."

"It's hard to say no to Gia." Jake agreed, inspecting his blaster, convinced it wasn't working properly. "Or Emma."

"Mind if I give it a try?" Noah asked him, holding out a hand. Jake let out a small growl as Noah took the blaster off him, and adopted a stance. "Pull!"

Tensou fired off another salvo, at which Noah started to shoot. Jake just clenched his jaw as the set ended and Noah raised the barrel, pointing the gun in a safe direction.

"Eight out of ten." Tensou stated. "Good work Noah."

"Beginner's luck!" Jake stated, snatching his blaster back.

"Jake, I don't think it's the pistol that's at fault here." Troy told him. Jake just rolled his eyes. "I think it's maybe you that's out of balance."

"I'm telling you, the pistol..."

Troy snatched the blaster from him and pointed it out over the edge of the ship.

"Pull!" He called out. Tensou fired off another set, which Troy targeted with precision. He held up the blaster as he finished.

"Eight out of ten! Not bad!" Noah responded.

"Look, none of us know much about Orion." Troy told him. "We're all disappointed Jordan isn't back, but we have to make the best of the situation."

"Yeah, give the guy a chance." Noah told him. "If you remember rightly, you were the same way when Jordan joined the team, and he ended up becoming one of your best friends!"

Jake grabbed his pistol and Troy's.

"PULL!" He yelled. Tensou fired off another set, which Jake took down angrily. He fired a huge salvo at them, which created a virtual wall of laser blasts. All of the clay pidgeons shattered, but then he fired off so many rounds it would have been impossible to miss them.

"There, ten out of ten!" Jake snorted, throwing the blasters down. One of them went off, causing Troy and Noah to jump as it narrowly missed their feet. Jake didn't seem to notice though as he stormed away, heading back into the ship.

"Oh yeah, this is going to end well." Noah grumbled.

"Give it time." Troy told him. "It's like you said, Jordan rubbed him the wrong way at the beginning. Maybe Orion will prove himself to him."

Back at the boutique, the stylist mopped his brow with a handkerchief as he worked furiously on Orion. The others had finished with Gia and Emma, and were now assisting him in the huge task of reversing months, perhaps years of neglect in his appearance.

Once the others were finished with his finger and toe nails, which now looked human as opposed to some form of talons, the stylist checked out his work. He smiled as he was finally able to accept that he was done. He backed away from Orion, taking the shawl off him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I think we're done here!" He declared, looking like he had just completed a great sculpture or tremendous painting. Given the difference in Orion's appearance, it wasn't far off the mark. Gia and Emma both smiled.

"Well, I know who I'm coming to if I'm ever in Boston again." She declared.

"Yeah, you look great Orion!" Emma agreed.

"Now, if you want to do something about these...oh sweetie I think calling them rags would be glorifying it...then my friend owns a store just down the street. It's called Gloria's, just show her this card and tell her I sent you, she'll take good care of you." The stylist told him, handing Orion a business card. "Call me any time. That's...um...that's my personal number. Just call any time."

"Thank you." Orion said as he took the card. He looked to Gia and Emma as they took him from the boutique. The stylist beamed broadly as he watched them go, knowing that soon the whole world would see the Silver Ranger doing battle to free the world, and looking good doing it!


	9. New Ranger, New Look

Orion followed the girls into the clothing store they had been recommended, and couldn't help looking around in awe. His mouth hung open as he looked around.

"Well, if we can't find something you like in here, I guess we won't find anything anywhere." Emma stated.

"This store...it's bigger than my old village!" He gasped, looking around. He looked to Gia. "This place is only here for people to buy clothes?"

"That's the general idea." Emma stated, looking around for an assistant. She tapped a nearby employee on the shoulder, attracting his attention from where he was pricing up shoes. "Hi, um...we're here to see Gloria, the guy at the hair salon sent us..."

"I've been expecting you!" A woman replied as she approached them. She was wearing a white trouser suit. She had long, blonde hair that was held back by a couple of braids that were tied together behind her head. She approached Orion, eyeing him up thoughtfully. "Wow, Julian wasn't kidding when he said you were a 911 case! That'll be all Jimmy, I'll handle this."

The guy left, at which Gloria continued to inspect Orion.

"So, do you have any preference for designers?" She asked.

"Um...one that does clothes?" He asked. She just smiled.

"Any materials you like?" She asked. He just shrugged. "How about sizes?" Orion said something that sounded like no language Gloria had ever heard. Emma and Gia knew that he had said something in Andresian...it hadn't occurred to them that they wouldn't necessarily use the same units of measurement there as they did on Earth. Orion had even said himself that he didn't know how long he had been stranded by Earth standards, since he didn't really know how the days and years on Andresia compared to Earth.

"He...um..." Gia started to say. "If Julian called, you know who we are right?"

"Oh, I know all right." She responded.

"Well, he isn't exactly from around here." Emma explained. "I guess he doesn't know how we measure clothes."

"Alright, then we're starting from the ground up." She answered, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a measuring tape. "I'll just take some measurements. You'll need to undress."

"NO!" Both girls called out as Orion pulled off his shirt in the middle of the store. Everyone was staring. "Orion, there are changing rooms right over there."

"Well, at least I've got an idea what I've got to work with." Gloria said, eyeing Orion with a bit of a glint in her eye. She took him by the wrist. "Come with me, I'll take you somewhere we can get you measured up, then we can see what our options are."

Back on the Red Galleon, Jake was in his room, lying back on his bed when he heard a knock on the door.

"Are you still armed or is it safe to come in?" Noah asked him. Jake just sighed.

"Do what you like Noah." Jake told him. Noah came into the room, seeing Jake lying on the bed. He just looked at him for a moment.

"Alright, do you want to talk about this now?" Noah asked him.

"Why exactly does everyone want to talk?" Jake asked. "You already made your choice."

"Well, it was a little something to do with the fact you almost blew my leg off!" Noah responded. "Look, I know you have your reservations about Orion, but do you really need to act like a five-year old now he's on the team?"

Jake didn't say anything; he just continued to stare at the ceiling.

"Look, you're disappointed it isn't Jordan, we all are." Noah told him. "But right now we have Orion. It's not like we're exactly in a position to pick and choose allies right now. It's not like people are exactly lining up around the block to get a huge price put on their heads."

"Noah, would you give it a rest?" Jake asked him. "I'm not happy about losing the vote, that much is clear, but I just..."

"What?" Noah asked.

"I just don't want to risk losing any of you." Jake answered. "This guy, sure he's good. He's better than good, but it's not like I'm the only one that's noticed he's kind of a one-man-band out there."

"None of us were exactly legendary at the beginning." Noah reminded him. "Hell, I took down more of those loogies by accident than anything else in the first couple of battles."

"I just don't think we should be taking any more chances than we have to." Jake reiterated as he got up from the bed. "If he pulls his weight, we won't have a problem, but so far all I've seen is him sleeping in and going shopping!"

"Jake, he flew God knows how far across the galaxy, he needs some time to adjust!" Noah reminded him. "Sure, he got some time to relax today, but soon he'll be doing his fair share just like the rest of us."

"Yeah, well I'll believe that when I see it." Jake grumbled. "In the meantime, if he ever puts any of you in danger..."

"We're ALWAYS in danger!" Noah reminded him. "If he puts us in danger, we'll do something about it. Until then, we just have to make the best of it."

"Fine." Jake responded. "Is that everything?"

Just then, they heard an alarm. Noah and Jake both ran into the main room, finding Troy already at the computer with Tensou checking out the alert.

"What's going on?" Noah asked. "Is it another attack?"

"No, it's something different. I'm not sure what it is." Troy admitted. "There are some strange energy readings, see if you can figure out what this is."

Noah sat down at the computer and tapped a few keys, bringing up all sorts of data.

"So what is it?" Jake asked.

"It's something new alright." Noah told him. "Its energy, but nothing like anything Vekar's been throwing at us."

"Maybe it's Lafitte?" Troy suggested.

"No, it doesn't fit his profile either." Noah told them. "That's...OK this is strange, these energy readings, they have very distinctive signatures...the energy seems to be...this can't be possible."

"What isn't possible?" Jake asked.

"It seems to be travelling along the fourth dimensional plane." Noah answered. Troy and Jake just looked to each other, and then back to him.

"Wait, fourth dimension?" Jake asked. "Isn't that...?"

"Time." Noah confirmed. "Whatever that energy source is...it seems like it moved through time."

"We should check this out." Troy stated, patting Noah's shoulder.

"Wait, Orion and the girls..."

"We can call them if we need them." Troy interrupted Jake. "I want to see what caused this."

With that, they all got ready to head into the city.

Back at the clothing store, Gloria had finished taking her measurements while Gia and Emma waited patiently. She was now looking around the store, trying to find things she thought might suit him. There was a huge stack of outfits waiting for him, and Orion was in the changing room. He pulled back the curtain, and stepped out in his first outfit, a black outfit covered in zippers and metal studs. He just looked to the girls with an expression of disgust on his face.

"No...I don't think so." Gloria stated, shaking her head. "I don't think Heavy Metal is exactly your look...how about...island chic? Here, try this!"

She handed him the next outfit, a brightly-coloured aloha shirt with a t-shirt and long shorts. He didn't look convinced, but seeing Emma and Gia encouraging him, he went inside and started to get changed.

"Your friend has a really good frame." Gloria assured them. "I'm sure we'll find something for him."

Orion opened the curtain, coming out in the latest outfit. Gloria just sucked her teeth.

"Perhaps not." She suggested. "Still, I think we're getting closer. The grey t-shirt seemed to work, and I think the black jeans were a good idea, just...maybe not with all the metal. Here, let's try this."

She sent Orion back into the changing room with another outfit. Gia and Emma looked to her.

"We really appreciate your help." Emma told her.

"Oh please, it's an honour to know I'm helping the Power Rangers." She assured them. "A new Ranger deserves a new look."

Just then, Orion came out of the changing room. He was wearing black denims, and a grey t-shirt, with a kind of letterman jacket, and a baseball cap with the skip turned up. He stood before the girls, awaiting their judgement.

"Hm..." Gloria mused as she considered the outfit. "The grey and the black are definitely working for you, but I'm not too sure about the sporting look."

Orion didn't say anything; he just pulled off the jacket and hat, before making his way to a display, where a mannequin was wearing a shiny, silver jacket. He pulled it off the mannequin, and threw it on, pulling it down. He smiled as he saw himself in the mirror.

"Really?" Gloria asked.

"I guess its tradition...a Ranger IS meant to wear their colour." Emma conceded as Orion continued to check himself out in the mirror.

"Well, who am I to judge?" Gloria asked. "I've been trying to sell that thing for ages!"

"Can we get like...a dozen or so of everything he's picked out?" Gia asked.

"Of course, I won't even charge you for disposing of these rags." She answered, indicating Orion's old clothes. "Believe me, it will be a service to humanity."

"Thanks, we really appreciate it." Gia answered, pulling out some cash. Gloria took them to ring up the sale as Orion took a set of sunglasses off a display rack, and tried them on.

Meanwhile, on Boston Common, Noah, Jake and Troy were walking along the pathway, looking for any signs of a disturbance. They eventually came across a large crowd, gathered around an area that had been cordoned off by the police.

"Well, the scans seem to confirm it." Noah stated. "This is the place alright."

"It's just a shame there are so many people here. We can't get closer to see what happened." Jake added. "What do you suppose caused this?"

"There's a lot of energy in the area." Noah told them. "The readings say that it's a kind of radiation, but...it's not like normal radiation."

"What happened here?" Troy asked one of the spectators.

"I don't know, it was really weird!" The man answered. "There was a kind of whooshing sound, and then a bright light...next thing I know, the grass is burned for about 20 feet!"

Before Troy could ask anything else though, he heard a scream, following which a large group of Bruisers and X-borgs started to pile into the park. Troy, Jake and Noah all rushed to the attack, morphing as they went.

Elsewhere, Orion was sitting at a table outside a coffee house with the girls, a huge number of shopping bags surrounding them. They had effectively bought his entire wardrobe in a single day, including, at Emma's insistence, buying him a number of sets of pyjamas in order to ensure there was no repeat of the embarrassing incident at breakfast.

Gia watched him take a sip of his cappuccino, and the look on his face said all that needed to be said. He pursed his lips, and screwed his eyes shut, like he was trying to block out everything about the environment.

"You hate it, don't you?" Emma asked. He just nodded as he forced down what was in his mouth, regretting it almost instantly, given how hot the coffee was. He banged on the table with a fist.

"You're seriously telling me people drink this stuff by choice?" He asked them. "I had to eat and drink some things that were pretty bad, but this...!"

"It's not for everyone." Gia conceded. She was a fully-fledged caffeine addict, and didn't mind who knew it. She reached for a sugar dispenser, sliding it to Orion. "It's probably just a little bitter for you. Here, put some of this in it. It'll take the edge off.

Orion took the sugar dispenser and started to pour sugar into it.

"So, what do you think of Earth?" Emma asked him.

"It seems like a nice enough place." He told them, looking around, fidgeting a little unsettled by the surroundings. "My old village was nothing like this though...don't people talk to each other here?"

Gia looked around and chuckled as she saw what he was talking about. Just about every second person was on some form of cell phone, tablet, I-pad or other electronic device, and most of them weren't using them to talk to anyone, but surfing the internet or sending e-mails or performing similar tasks.

"I guess you have a point." Gia conceded.

"So what was Andresia like?" Emma asked him. He shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess I didn't see too much of it before The Armada came. I only saw my village and a couple of other towns." He answered. "We didn't have anything like this mall though. My own village only had about 300 people in it when...you know..."

"You said you were a miner there." Emma recalled.

"Almost everyone was." Orion told her. "The whole of Andresia's economy relied on the mines. There were a lot of precious minerals on the planet, especially near my village. Anyone that didn't work in the mines worked in haulage, or one of the shops the miners used...pretty much everyone's livelihood relied on mining somehow."

They both noticed that he started to become more than a little quiet talking about his home. They could guess that it was a pretty horrendous thing to think about. Maybe one day he'd be comfortable to talk about it. Gia saw him continuing to tip sugar into his cappuccino, and figured it was best to change the subject.

"So...um...do you want some coffee with your sugar?" Gia asked. Orion just looked at her blankly as she took the sugar shaker from him. He had to have put about six or eight sugars in his coffee. Orion stirred it, and tasted it, finding it more to his liking this time.

"Well...I guess Andresians like their sugar." Emma commented.

"This one does at least." Orion replied. Gia noticed the bracelet on his wrist. It was the one thing he had kept after the shopping trip. Orion had left his clothes with Gloria to be disposed of. Gia could only hope that they'd ended up in a firing barrel by now. However, he had kept the bracelet. It was an unremarkable thing, which looked like it was made of either tin, or some other low-value metal just like it. It was one of the first things she noticed about him when she first bumped into him, thinking that it was unusual. She was about to ask him about it, when their morphers bleeped. She and Emma took out their morphers, at which it occurred to them that Orion had left his on the Red Galleon for Noah to work on.

"What is it guys?" Gia asked.

"We've got company on Boston Common." Jake told them.

"We're not too far." Emma answered. "Gia and I will be there shortly."

Gia just looked to Orion, and gestured to all the shopping bags.

"Take these back to the Galleon." She told him.

"I can help!" Orion insisted. "If there's a fight..."

"We don't know if you'll need your morpher or not!" Gia reminded him. "Just take these bags and head back to the Galleon. We'll come back for you afterwards."

"But..."

"Just go! We don't have time to argue!" Gia put down aggressively. As Gia and Emma ran off, leaving some money to cover the bill, Orion got up and started to gather his bags. He didn't notice a figure in the shadows a short way off, watching him very closely. As Orion left the scene, the figure made his move, following him at a safe distance.

Over on the Common, Troy, Jake and Noah were taking care of their opponents, concentrating on allowing the civilians to leave. They knew that they could probably deal with them faster, but a thought had occurred to Troy. Because of the emergency services, they hadn't had much of a chance to really check out the scene. While the cops had helped with the evacuation, Troy was relying on the fact that once they had no more civilians to worry about, self-preservation would start to kick in and they would leave too, giving them some time to let Noah do some tests.

"Glad you could join us!" Troy responded, blowing a Bruiser apart with his blaster as Gia and Emma arrived. "So, where's Orion?"

"Don't tell me the new guy isn't joining us!" Jake scoffed as he turned a Bruiser into scrap metal with far more blaster shots than was really necessary at point-blank range. "God forbid we should expect him to actually do something."

"He didn't have his morpher with him!" Emma reminded him. "We sent him back to the Galleon."

"Alright, the last of the cops are gone." Troy stated as he saw the last of them leaving. "Let's finish these guys off!"

"How about we road-test some of the new keys Orion gave us?" Noah suggested, pulling out the Blue Space Ranger key.

"I guess there's no time like the present." Jake answered as they turned their keys in the locks. "Let's Rocket!"

"Spiral Sabre!" Troy called out as he drove his weapon through an X-borg with ease. "Not bad!"

"I just wish we had their old Zords!" Noah responded, taking down another couple. "I always wanted to go travelling in space!"

"Let's give these a try!" Gia suggested as her Star Slinger made short work of another, before pulling out the Yellow Galaxy Ranger key. The others all followed suit. "Go Galactic!"

Their Galaxy Sabres cut down their opponents with relatively little effort, and before long they were alone, surrounded by wreckage.

"Alright, that's the last of them." Troy stated as they de-morphed. "Make it fast Noah; it won't be long before the authorities are back."

Noah brought out a scanner and quickly got to work on the scorched ground. He looked to the others.

"Well, there's no doubt about it, radiation energy emanating from a fourth dimensional plane." He told them.

"So, it is a time traveller?" Jake asked.

"Time traveller?" Gia asked. "What are you talking about?"

"The energy that caused this came from the fourth dimensional plane...which is time." Noah informed them. "I think a gateway opened up here."

"And if a gateway opened..."

"I think it's safe to say that someone or something came through." Noah surmised.

"So, the question is, who came through?" Troy asked. "And why?"

Just then, their morphers bleeped. They all looked to each other, before Troy answered.

"What is it Tensou?" Troy asked.

"Rangers, there's been another energy release in the city, just like the first one!" Tensou informed them.

"Another time traveller?" Emma asked.

"Great, first aliens and now time travellers!" Jake complained. "What else are they going to throw at us?"

"We should get back to the Red Galleon." Troy suggested. "We can try and figure out what's happening from there."

Meanwhile, in another part of town, as the light of the second gateway dissipated, four people were left standing in a deserted street. They were all wearing bright white jump suits with black stripes down the sleeves and trouser legs. The leader, a woman with long, dark hair put on a set of sunglasses, scanning the area.

"The other gateway definitely opened up here." Jen declared as she took off her visor. "So now we just need to figure out where we are. Trip?"

"2014." Another member of the team declared, checking a hand-held scanner. "According to this, we're in Boston Massachusetts."

"Well, now we know where we are; now all we need is to find them." Lucas chipped in. "But...uh...we might want to change first."

Jen just nodded in agreement. They had been tracking down these fugitives for a while now, and had always seemed to be one step behind. They had somehow found a way to cloak their signal, meaning that it was difficult to find their location. This time, they had taken a risky option, and piggy-backed on their energy wave. It was effectively like grabbing onto a moving car and holding on for dear life. It would mean that they ended up in the same place, but that they wouldn't have any control over where they ended up. They had opted to travel in their Time Force uniforms since they didn't know what time period they would end up in. Their time in Silver Hills had taught them the value of undercover work.

Lucas pulled out a device, which he activated, calling forth a massive brief case. He placed it on the ground, and opened it, revealing clothing and money appropriate for a number of different time periods. He pulled out an outfit, throwing it to Katie.

"Alright, let's make this quick." Jen told them. "We have a job to do."


	10. Time Fugitive

**A/N:** Sorry about any confusing alerts in anyone's inbox. To explain, I HAD posted Chapter 10, but suddenly had a change of heart about some of the content, and quickly re-worked it. I try not to do this, but admit I was hasty in posting it. So apologies for that. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

Orion made his way back to the ship as quickly as he could. The city wasn't like anything he had ever seen before, but Gia and Emma had taken care to make sure that Orion memorised a few choice landmarks in order to be able to find his way back to the ship, which was hidden by its cloaking technology at present in the event they had become separated. In Boston, the city that had seen most of the defining events in the country's founding days, it wasn't hard to find memorable historical landmarks for him to use.

He managed to make his way back to the harbour, and checked around, trying to remember where the ship was. As he looked, he heard something nearby, and stopped still. He didn't turn immediately, but after a moment, he started to walk again. He felt the hair on the back of his neck standing up. When he had been marooned, he hadn't always been alone. There were no other Andresians, or even any other civilised creatures, but there were still animals. After the bombardment, a lot of the planet had been left more or less desolate, barren. What little was left, the edible plants and animals and fish became commodities more valuable than the minerals he had spent his life dragging out of the ground. Creatures that normally avoided Andresians, after days at a time without food suddenly used their hunger to steel their natural fear. He had developed strong instincts for when he was being followed, instincts that served him well when he had been on Lafitte's crew.

He started to analyse his surroundings as he walked, keenly aware of the fact that he was unarmed. His first instinct was to look for weapons, something that he had a knack for. Another thing he had developed in that time was a certain sense of inventiveness, especially when it came to improvising tools or weapons in times of desperation. Although there were other people around, something that complicated matters, he listened out for any sign of any sound that gave away when someone was approaching. As he got close to his journey's end, he tensed up his fists, and raised his heart rate, preparing for a battle. As he spun around though, he could see no one, at least...no one that seemed to be paying him any attention. As he looked around though, he could see a puddle nearby, only just coming to rest, and some goods on a nearby market stand still moving as though someone had only just brushed past them. If someone had been following him, then they had fled when they realised Orion knew he was being followed. He couldn't guarantee that they were gone, but since he knew he'd be safest when he was back on the ship, and had his morpher in his possession once more, he continued his journey.

Meanwhile, a short distance away, the man following Orion shifted into view, stepping out of a haze, as though appearing from nowhere at all. He had long hair, a little short of his shoulder and a thick, dark stubble across his jaw line and upper lip. He had dark flesh, appearing to be Hispanic, or perhaps of Filipino decent. He was wearing a black leather jacket, and dark blue jeans. He pulled out a communicator, and held it to his ear.

"It's me." He said, coming back out onto the harbour as he kept his eye on Orion. "I've found him; he's just like the description you pulled."

"Are you certain?" The voice on the other end asked. Almost as he said this, Orion disappeared from view. The man just smiled.

"I'm certain of it." He replied. "Do you want me to keep eyes on him?"

"That shouldn't be necessary, it's enough that we know he's here." The voice stated. "Return here, there was another gateway opened, we're not alone."

"Are you sure about that?" He asked.

"We're close; this is everything we worked for!" The voice replied. "We can't let anything get in the way, not even Time Force!"

"I'm coming back." The man sighed.

"And try not to be seen." The voice told him.

"Trust me, that won't be a problem." He replied as he hung up, and walked away, disappearing from sight.

Orion got back to the ship, and had just finished putting his bags in his room when he came into the main room, finding the other Rangers arriving back after their battle.

"Did you enjoy shopping?" Jake asked him in a gruff tone as he took a seat.

"It was definitely different." Orion responded, pretending not to notice the sarcasm in Jake's tone. He had already picked up on the fact that Jake wasn't fond of the idea of him being around. "Sorry, I would have come, but I didn't have my morpher, and the girls insisted..."

"Yeah, that was probably my fault." Noah conceded, going to his work bench and picking up the morpher, handing it to Orion. "I should probably have waited until you got back to continue my studies. I'm still certain we've only just scratched the surface of what this can do."

"Well, those questions will have to wait for now." Troy stated pulling out the chair by the computer banks. "I want to know what's going on with those time portals."

"Time portals?" Orion asked.

"Yeah, that was what you missed while you were out." Jake told him. "As near as we can tell a couple of time portals opened up in the city."

"The first one opened up in Boston Common." Noah continued, showing him some computer images. "That's where we encountered Vekar's killjoys."

"So...Prince Vekar is using time-travellers now?" Orion asked.

"I don't think so." Gia told him. "From what I saw, they were there to have a look around. I think they were there to investigate just like us."

"One of them was carrying this." Emma added, putting a device on the table. "It looks like some kind of scanner. I think Vekar's just as interested to see who came through those gateways as we are."

"More importantly, why two gateways?" Jake asked. "Why take two trips when you can take one?"

"You HAVE seen the Terminator pictures right?" Noah asked. "Or Back to the Future? Or...just about any other time-travel story? Why does more than one person normally go back to the same time period?"

"They both want to change something." Emma answered. "But for different reasons."

"So which one's the Terminator and which one's Kyle Reece?" Noah asked.

"I guess that's what we have to find out." Troy sighed. "Good news Tensou, it looks like we're not going to be looking for the next clue any time soon."

"I'll put a trace on the emergency services' communications." Noah answered. "It should alert us to anything unusual in the city."

"Where are you going?" Jake asked as Orion headed out onto the deck. The Silver Ranger looked back."

"I'm going to train." Orion told them.

"We'll go with you." Troy answered, getting up. "Noah, set the computer to an alarm."

"Troy..."

"We can't do anything until these time travellers make a move." Troy interrupted Jake. "When they do, we should be ready."

Up on The Armada flagship, Damaras was on the bridge, tracking events on Earth. Lavira came onto the bridge, carrying a tablet with her.

"I have that data you requested." She told him. "There isn't much, the Rangers wrecked the recon team at the first site. The second team got to the second location after they left."

"What can you tell me?" He asked her.

"Shouldn't we get the Prince?" Argus asked him.

"The Prince is still in a depression over recent events." Damaras informed him. "He shouldn't be disturbed from his rest."

This was a polite way of saying that the Prince was sulking over the fact he'd been handed decisive defeats on a regular basis by the Corsair Rangers. In his last, and most ill-advised plan to date, he had opted to try and defeat them through exhaustion, throwing waves of his troops at them until they fell; unfortunately Orion's timely arrival had not only put a major kink in that plan itself, but exposed a glaring weakness in it. Now, the prince had all but depleted the few forces he had. He was still waiting for reinforcements from the rest of his empire, and the troops he had left took time to assemble and charge up. He had successfully managed to decimate his own army.

"The Prince requires his rest." Lavira agreed. "Besides, perhaps we will do better without him."

"Perhaps?" Damaras responded with a slightly sarcastic laugh. She handed him the tablet.

"It's exactly as we first believed, the radiation is most definitely fourth-dimensional. They were time portals." She told him. "There were residual signs of life signatures in the area."

"So someone did come through those portals." He said with a smile. "Well, I guess it would be interesting to find out about the future."

"Only if it's good news." Lavira suggested.

"We need someone on the ground, someone with some brains, not one of these drones." He replied.

"I have someone in mind." Lavira stated. "I already took the liberty of summoning him."

"Brief him and send him into the city. Tell him to be subtle for now. I have a feeling it won't be long before these time travellers reveal themselves." He stated. "Tell him to take Argus with him for back-up. Frankly, I'm starting to tire of his lack of personality."

"We DID program him that way." Lavira reminded him. "But I guess I know what you're talking about."

With that, she took Argus and left the room, leaving Damaras on the bridge to continue monitoring events.

Meanwhile, in a cheap motel in Boston, Jen, and Trip were in a motel room, setting up their surveillance equipment. They needed to work quickly to catch the fugitives that they had been chasing for close to a year already. It had begun as only one, but across that year, he had acquired a couple of allies on his travels through time.

"We're set up." Trip told her. He noticed that Jen wasn't really listening. This search wasn't just a job for her, it was personal. It was an assignment that Jen had insisted they take; despite everyone pleading with her to let someone else handle it. The only reason she had managed to convince Time Force Command was because she was the best officer they had. "Jen?"

"I'm fine Trip." Jen told her, turning her attention to the monitor as she rang her hands together intently. He just sighed and returned to his work.

"The police reports from the area are inconclusive." He told her. "I've put out a couple of APB's for people matching the descriptions."

"I doubt that'll help." Jen told him. "But it's better than nothing I guess."

"Jen, if this is difficult..."

"Stay out of my head Trip!" Jen put down flatly. "I've warned you about that before!"

"Jen, you don't need to be Xybrian to see that this is getting to you." Trip said sympathetically. "You and I both know that the only reason we've gotten this close is because of you. The playbook doesn't work here. He knows our protocols, our moves...everything we do, he knows as well as any of us! The only reason we can keep pace is because..."

"Because I know him better than anyone alive, I know that Trip!" She stated.

"All I'm saying is, I know it can't be easy to think about what we have to do." Trip told her. "When we make the move, one of us can...you know..."

"No, I want to do it." Jen told him.

"But Jen..."

"I didn't volunteer for this thinking it would be easy Trip!" She interrupted him. "God knows I don't like it, but...I want answers. I have to know why. I need answers Trip."

"We'll get them." Trip assured her. "I'm kind of good..."

"No, not like that Trip." She told him. "I want to look in his eyes and get the answers from him."

Just then, Katie and Lucas came into the room. Katie was carrying cardboard cartons of take-out. She had to step over one of two roller-beds as she made her way into the room. It was more than a little cramped in the tiny, less than stellar motel room.

"I hope everyone's hungry." Katie said as she came in, putting the food down where she could find space. "It might not be the best, but it's in the budget Time Force is willing to spring for."

"I still can't believe they counted the period clothing into our budget." Lucas replied, sitting down, taking a bag with some crispy pancake rolls.

"What did you find?" Jen asked him.

"Nothing useful." Lucas answered. "The cops were crawling all over the place. I managed to get a bit of information from some reporters, but nothing useful. The authorities are trying to call it a gas explosion, but the tabloids are having none of it."

"No wonder, why would the Rangers care about a gas explosion?" Trip asked in response. "Say, is there any chicken and sweetcorn soup?"

As they started to dig in, Katie could see Jen just glaring at the screen. She made her way over, stumbling over the beds as she went, putting a container down next to her.

"Come on Jen, starving yourself won't help anyone." Katie told her. "We'll find them. Trip's got the system searching for them."

"We just...we can't let him get away again Katie." Jen told her.

"We won't." Katie assured her. "Besides, would you really want to miss this classy meal time?"

Jen just looked back to the others, seeing Trip and Lucas fighting over a spare rib. She just laughed.

"Come on." Katie said with a smile. "Besides, we have a budget. Where do you think they'll be hiding out?"

"Nowhere as luxurious as this I'm sure." Jen answered as she went back to the group. "If someone's eaten the sweet and sour pork, there'll be hell to pay!"

Meanwhile, in another part of town, in a penthouse suite overlooking the city, the fugitive, the very one they were looking for, was waiting for his accomplices to return. He poured himself a measure of bourbon as he stood on the balcony looking out over the city.

He was a tall man, with a muscular build, wearing a tight, red t-shirt and white denims. He had black hair which he had slicked back. As he waited for his accomplices to return, he couldn't help thinking about how close this all was to being over. Unfortunately, the second gateway opening so close to where they had come in had presented him with a serious problem. He checked his cell phone again for any new word from his accomplices.

There was a good reason he had avoided them for so long. He knew everything about Time Force. He had mastered their protocols, and knew every one of their techniques. In fact, he had written a good number of them himself. He had been one of them. There was nothing that anyone at Time Force could teach Alex Drake about how to hunt a fugitive.

He looked to his hand, to the wedding ring still sitting on his finger and sighed.

"I'm sorry Jen." He said sadly. "It'll all be over soon. I promise."


	11. Alex Drake, Most Wanted!

There was a flash of light on Boston Common, heralding the arrival of Argus and The Armada's latest Commander, Blood Stalker. Blood Stalker had been sent to Earth specifically to track down whoever had come through the time portals. Lavira had chosen him specifically because he was famed across the galaxy for his ability to track a target. He was a self-styled assassin, who was a Commander of the Armada in name more than function because in general he preferred to walk alone.

He towered over Argus, head and shoulders clearly above him, and his frame was massively muscled, his shoulders alone looking like they were powerful enough to drag a Land Rover. He was wearing a long, brown leather trench-coat, with massive furs over the shoulders that were black and white striped. Under the coat, it could be seen that he was wearing black metal armour of interlocking plates that looked like they covered his entire body. Around his waist, and crossing his chest, going over each shoulder were ammunition belts. He had a huge blaster rifle slung over his shoulder. His helmet was completely blacked out, the visor incorporating various tracking devices to analyse details of his surroundings. The cops guarding the site of the first portal took one look at Argus and Blood Stalker and immediately ran, screaming into their radios for backup.

"Make this quick Blood Stalker." Argus warned him. "We will not be alone for long."

"I thought that's what you were here for." Blood Stalker said sarcastically as he knelt down, carefully analysing the ground for clues. He picked up some of the scorched earth in his hand, holding it close to his face. "I would be quicker working alone."

"Damaras ordered me to accompany you." Argus told him.

"Then do me a favour and keep up." Blood Stalker responded, throwing the earth aside and dusting off his hands. "Come, this way!"

Argus just followed him, keeping his hand on the hilt of his sword as they went.

A short distance away, a man was standing on a street corner, just outside a bar. He was tall, with long hair tied back with a length of green ribbon. He was wearing a suit that looked like it was straight out of the Colonial period, in a dark green material. He pulled out a communicator.

"Alex, it's me." He began. "There's been a huge flash at our entry point. I think..."

Just then, four cops ran past him, still screaming into their radios. The man just sighed.

"OK, scratch that, I think I can safely say that The Armada has sent their search party." He amended his report.

"Alright, then keep me updated." Alex told him. "I need to know when this plan is going into action."

"There!" He heard a gruff voice yell. He turned to see Blood Stalker and Argus at the end of the street. He stood, staring at them as everyone else ran away.

"That human?" Argus asked him. "He's just some tourist attraction worker..."

"His scent, I recognise it from the portal site!" Blood Stalker told him. "I'm never wrong!"

"Um...Alex?" The man said over his communicator, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a grenade. "Get ready; we're coming your way!"

With that, he threw the grenade at Argus and Blood Stalker, turning and running as it exploded in a blinding flash, giving him a couple of seconds' head start. Blood Stalker started to clear his vision, but as he reached for his rifle, Argus grabbed his hand.

"We can't interrogate a corpse!" Argus reminded him. With that, they both started running after the man in green.

Over at the Motel, the former Time Force Rangers were taking turns watching the monitors as the others took time to sleep. Jen was watching the monitors so intensely; waiting for any sign of Alex's presence that she didn't look like would ever be able to sleep. She still couldn't believe any of this had happened. She knew that there was no choice but her. Alex had evaded capture by Time Force for so long; they knew that their methods simply would never work. He had actually devised many of the techniques they had tried to use to find him. In short, they had to try something that wasn't in the playbook. They needed someone who knew him intimately, knew things that weren't on the records they had tried to use to establish his likely courses of action. Alex was an intensely private person though, and few really knew him as a person at Time Force. The only one that knew him that well, that had anything like Alex's experience and skills was Jen.

She was fidgeting with her hand, keeping her eyes on the screen. She almost jumped out of her skin when Trip placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Jen, it's my shift." He told her. She just shook her head.

"I'll be fine." She told him. "Go back to sleep."

"Jen..."

"Please trip, trust me, I'll be fine." She told him. As he knelt next to her, she realised the folly of this. There really was no point in lying to a Xybrian, especially a fully-grown Xybrian. Trip had been young during their tenure, and many of his abilities were still quite raw and untrained. Even then he was usually pretty spot-on when it came to knowing what people were thinking and feeling. Now though, his talents were so impressive that he was often used to interrogate difficult suspects. He looked to the computer as it suddenly sent up a warning.

"Jen...there's something on the police scanner." He told her. "Two aliens just turned up."

"It's the middle of The Armada War!" She reminded him. "Aliens turn up..."

"But there's another thing. The cops reported them chasing a guy in Colonial style clothes." Trip told her. She smiled.

"I guess Tom thought coming to Boston he could get away with wearing his own gear." Jen commented as she grabbed her jacket and started to wake Katie aggressively. "Come on guys, get up! We've got a hit!"

The former Time Force Rangers moved quickly, getting dressed as fast as they could before heading out the door.

Meanwhile, up on the Red Galleon, the Rangers were all unwinding after training. They had expected a monster attack to come soon, but it seemed like Vekar was a little slow on the uptake this time. Jake was just sitting, his glare burning a hole through Orion as he sat with Gia, looking intently at her.

"Nah-se-tray-booh?" She offered tentatively. He just smiled as he shook his head gently.

"Nah-se-TREE-booh." He corrected her, saying the word slowly and sounding it out for her. Gia repeated the word as Jake just shook his head in disbelief.

"Here." Noah stated, holding out an ice-pack. Jake took it, and held it to the side of his face. "Now do you believe he's ready for the team?"

"He's got some moves, I never doubted that." Jake said gruffly.

"Nahsetreebooh, muhk-haya Gia." Gia said, pointing to herself. Orion smiled brightly and nodded his head. Jake just threw up a hand, gesturing to the scene as Gia smiled, elated with her success.

"What's he even doing?" Jake asked.

"I think he's teaching her some Andresian." Noah said, observing the scene and trying to figure it out. "I guess it would be cool to know a REAL alien language. Not, you know...Klingon or something."

"How does she know that? None of us know any Andresian; he could be telling her to say anything!" Jake responded. "He could be teaching her to say she's a giraffe and none of us would know!" Noah just laughed.

"You're just pissed he knocked you on your butt." He chuckled. "I guess he learned a thing or two about fighting in confined spaces working with Lafitte."

"Yeah, being a vicious pirate has to make you good at fighting on board ships." Jake surmised. Before Noah could reply though, Tensou flew into the room, frantically flapping around.

"Rangers, the computer's flagged an alert on the police transmission." Tensou rushed out as he landed in the middle of the room. He activated a viewing screen, showing them images from the city.

"Argus." Noah groaned, seeing the armoured General. He had fought him once before, and had found himself taking a sound beating as a result. It was something that still stuck in his mind.

"They also sent a new Commander." Gia commented, pointing to Blood Stalker. "I notice they aren't travelling with the same cast of thousands."

"Prince Vekar's probably still waiting for his toys to get repaired." Jake said with a shrug as the view switched. It was only then that they saw a man in green Colonial dress running, closely followed by them. It wasn't ESPECIALLY unusual to see people dressed that way in and around Boston, there were so many historical sites that had staff members dress up that people could be seen dressed that way. "Why are they chasing some museum worker?" Before they got an answer though, Orion snatched up his jacket and started running.

"Orion!" Troy called out as the Silver Ranger turned and ran from the room, morphing as he went. He looked to the others and just let out a sigh. "So much for strategy."

With that, the rest of the Rangers followed him, morphing as they went. They could talk to Orion about waiting until they formed a plan before rushing into battle when they got back.

Back on the streets of Boston, the former Time Force Rangers were making their way towards the disturbance, knowing that the man The Armada forces were chasing was one of Alex's known accomplices. As they were starting to get close though, Trip skidded to a halt. Katie quickly noticed and stopped, holding Lucas and Jen back.

"Trip, what is it?" Katie asked.

"The scanner, it got another ping." He informed them. "It's at a hotel not far from here."

"Another attack?" Lucas asked. Trip just shook his head.

"It's a red-flagged credit card." Trip informed them. "Someone used a credit card that was reported missing."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Jen asked incredulously. Trip just showed her the scanner.

"Look at the name on the card." He told her. She took the handset and checked it, furrowing her brows in confusion. "It's one of Alex's guys."

"But that doesn't make sense." Jen told them. "Alex has been so careful for so long...why would he risk anything now by using a flagged credit card?"

"It's not his card." Lucas reminded her. "And that guy only joined his crew like a month ago..."

"Lucas, you come with me!" Jen told him. "Katie, you and Trip go to the hotel. We'll catch up once we've caught Tom."

"On it." They agreed, before heading off in different directions.

Meanwhile, back in the penthouse suite, Alex was busy preparing for a fight, pulling on a shoulder harness, and ensuring the hand-blasters in it were loaded, ready for action. He also had a blaster rifle and several grenades ready for the occasion. He put down his rifle and picked up a steak knife, cutting a piece of steak off, before popping it in his mouth.

"MMM...they are not kidding; the Kobe Beef here is amazing!" He commented as the door opened. His accomplice in white came into the room.

"I'm back, just like you said." He stated, looking Alex up and down, noticing the hardware. He went to the bed, picking up a sword. "I'm guessing we're expecting company."

"Tom's got The Armada's attention." Alex told him, taking another bite. "You should try the steak, it's great."

"You ordered room service?" Trent asked. Alex just shrugged, and showed Trent his credit card.

"Feel free, you paid for it." He stated. The man in white just took the card.

"You used my...I thought you said that was the LAST thing you do!" He yelled in response.

"I had to get Time Force out here somehow Trent." He said with a shrug. "Now, why don't you pull one of your disappearing acts and get ready. I've got a feeling that housekeeping's going to be busy in the morning."

Down in the lobby, Tom came charging through the door, sending an unfortunate bell hop flying as he went. He leapt over a couch on his way towards the elevators, frantically mashing the button as security started to come over to intercept him.

"Come on, come on!" He growled. The first security guard was almost on him, so he turned and held up his hands. "Look man, sorry about the entrance..."

"Just come with us to the office sir." He warned Tom.

"Look, you want to clear the lobby, things are going to get really wild in here." He stated.

"Is that a threat sir?" He asked. He grabbed Tom's jacket, at which Tom immediately twisted his arm and kicked him away. He took down the next two very quickly, making sure not to hurt them too much. He didn't really want to get them involved in this.

Just as the elevator door opened, glass rained in at the front of the hotel. Tom went into the elevator as Blood Stalker and Argus came into the lobby.

"Hey, try to keep up." Tom called out as he swiped his key-card, activating the security lock on the elevator that prevented just anyone going up to the Penthouse floor. As the doors shut, Blood Stalker slammed into the door. He pounded his fist on it in frustration.

"Get the other elevator down!" He yelled at one of the terrified security guards. The guard just complied with the request, handing his keycard over without a fight as the elevator started to come down. Just then, Katie and Trip arrived in the lobby. They just stood, staring at Argus and Blood Stalker.

"They don't look too friendly." Katie stated.

"They're not." Trip assured her, pulling out his hand blaster. The lobby quickly emptied at the sight of weapons being drawn as Katie and Trip opened fire. Argus deflected their blasts with the blade of his sword.

"Go and get the target." Argus told Blood Stalker. "I'll deal with this...interference."

"Be my guest." Blood Stalker said as he got into the elevator, swiping the keycard and heading up to the Penthouse floor. Jen and Lucas got into the lobby, finding the scene of destruction before them. They both pulled out their blasters as they sought out cover. Jen dived over the reception desk, landing next to Trip.

"I appreciate the support." Trip told her. "Did you lose...?"

"Our perp came in here." Jen told him. Trip just looked at her.

"OK, that can't be a coincidence." He told her as they popped up to take a couple of pot shots.

"Trust me, it isn't." Jen assured him. "Alex doesn't do anything by accident."

A short distance away, the Rangers were about to arrive at the hotel, and could already hear the fire-fight before they got into the street. Tensou contacted them on their communicators.

"Rangers, my scans show that they've split up." Tensou told them. "Argus is in the lobby, but the Commander, he's heading up to the Penthouse suite! Troy, there are people up there!"

"They're on the top floor, they'll be trapped!" Noah called out. Troy thought about it for a moment.

"Orion, you and Noah are with me, we'll take Argus." He told them. "The rest of you, get up to the Penthouse Suite."

"Legendary Mode, Wild Force!" Gia called out, turning the Ranger Key in her morpher. She opened out her wings as she went. "Grab on!"

Emma and Jake both grabbed on as she powered her way up into the air, rising sharply. Troy and Noah pulled out their weapons as Orion gripped his Silver Spear.

"Alright, keep an eye out for civilians." Troy reminded them. "Let's make a show of this!"

Meanwhile, up in the Penthouse, Alex pulled on his leather jacket, concealing his shoulder harness, and placing his blaster rifle on the opposite side of the small bar in the room. He took a bottle of bourbon and poured himself a drink as he watched the elevator coming up.

"You caught your breath yet Tom?" He asked. The man in green just nodded his head.

"I forgot how much effort all this stuff is." He said, clutching his side.

"I guess there wasn't much call to morph in Colonial Angel Grove." Alex conceded as he offered Tom a drink. He waved it off.

"I don't drink." He told him. Alex just chuckled and shook his head.

"Fine, more for me." He responded. Just then, the elevator opened and Blood Stalker stepped out. He made his way into the middle of the room. Alex just smiled.

"I was wondering when you'd get here." He told him. Blood Stalker reached up, pulling off his helmet. He used it while tracking, but he found the restriction on his line of sight and hearing was troublesome in battle. He had already found what he was looking for, now he just needed to bring them down.

His head was covered in fur, and had long, floppy ears that hung down when he removed his helmet, almost like he had long hair. He had deep wrinkles on his face, and a dark, black nose. His eyes were blazing red. He just smiled, showing a row of razor sharp canines.

"You made this too easy." He told them. "I recognise your scent. You came through the portal too."

"Well, that won't be a crime for another 950 years." Alex said with a shrug. "Would you like a drink?"

"I want to know what you brought through that portal!" Blood Stalker snarled. Just then, he spun around, his fist connecting with something solid. Trent shifted back into view as he tumbled away, quickly regaining his feet.

"I don't need to see you boy!" Blood Stalker responded, tapping his nose. "Now, I only need one of you to tell me what you brought through with you, so...which one is it going to be?"

"I guess we're done with the talking part of this exchange?" Alex asked, reaching behind the bar. Blood Stalker just nodded. "Well, don't say we didn't try!"

With that, he snatched up the blaster rifle while Trent and Tom rushed Blood Stalker, swords at the ready.

**A/N: **There it is! You now know who the fugitives are! Sorry this chapter took so long, I had to re-tool it a few times before I was happy with it. Here's hoping you enjoy it!


	12. A Personal Mission

In the lobby of the hotel, Jen and the other former Time Force Rangers were locked in a desperately one-sided battle. They didn't have their old powers. No one knew why, one day they simply stopped working. It was as though their powers simply didn't exist anymore. Since then, they had been forced to rely on standard-issue ordinance, something that in this case seemed to be woefully inadequate.

Argus deflected any blasts that came straight for him, but even those that hit him seemed to rebound off his armour with little effect. Lucas was forced to run and dive for cover as he threw a table at the couch he was hiding behind, sending both of them spinning away.

"God Dammit!" He snarled as he came to rest near Katie. "We might as well be throwing colourful language at him!"

"I'm on it!" Katie replied, racking out a steel baton from her jacket. She could see this guy was tough, but then again, her strength was genetically enhanced. She had once single-handedly lifted a car, and she had ripped the doors off a prison transport vehicle when it had crashed. She broke cover and ran for Argus as the others covered her, keeping him occupied. She ran straight behind him and brought the baton down, denting his head...but only by a small margin. She gulped as he turned around and looked at her like she had tried to hit her with a marshmallow. That blow should have been able to write off an armoured car, but he just stared at her like she had patted him on the head. It was the only attack that had done any visible damage, but it seemed his armour was too strong for even that to affect his systems.

"Oh shit." She muttered before he grabbed her around the throat with one hand.

"Katie!" Trip yelled as he broke cover and ran at them. Argus batted aside the grenade he threw, which blew up, wrecking the nearby restaurant area, before swiping his way with his sword. Even with his mind-reading abilities, Trip was barely able to avoid the attack, which sliced open his thigh, sending him tumbling across the debris-strewn floor, before choke-slamming Katie into the ground, rendering her unconscious. It was fortunate that the same genetic treatments that gave her superhuman strength had also increased her muscle, tissue and bone density by a significant margin. Jen and Lucas could see she was still breathing, but if it was anyone else, they were sure she would almost certainly have died.

"Anyone else?" Argus asked as he rounded on Jen and Lucas. Before they could do anything though, they heard a yell, at which Orion charged into the lobby, impaling Argus with his Silver Spear, ramming him through a pillar. Noah and Troy were right behind him. Argus grabbed the spear, using it for leverage and threw Orion through the air, flipping him over his head, smashing him through some furniture. Argus picked up his sword as he rounded on the others, before with a gesture, half a dozen Bruisers appeared in the lobby.

"Great, he called for back-up." Troy called out as he and Noah got to work. From where they were in cover, Jen sized up the situation.

"So much for dealing with this quietly." Lucas grumbled. "This is worse than Leningrad!"

"Not quite yet, but it looks like it could be." Jen agreed. "Only half the team showed up. If we're lucky the other half went to the Penthouse."

Jen thought for a moment, before breaking cover and running for reception. She vaulted over the counter, and immediately started searching. She imagined that a hotel like this probably had pretty strict security, especially at the Penthouse. Pulling the reception desk apart, scattering paperwork and stationery, she breathed a sigh of relief as she found what she was looking for, a keycard attached to a large bunch of keys. When the staff had run off, someone had left a set of master keys behind. She snatched up the keys and looked over the desk.

"Katie, you're with me!" She yelled. "Trip, Lucas, help out down here! Try to make sure the whole place doesn't come down!"

She and Katie got into one of the elevators, at which Jen activated the key card, bypassing the security and mashing the button for the top floor.

Trip and Lucas broke cover, running into battle. Noah saw Lucas kicking one of the bruisers back, before unloading at point blank into it with two blasters.

"Uh...OK, who are these guys?" Troy asked.

"I'm going out on a limb and suggesting they came through one of the time portals." Noah suggested, seeing Trip hit one of them with an energy grenade. These weapons were not exactly available in this time period, making him suspect that the strangers had to have brought them back with them.

"Well for now they're allies." Troy answered as they resumed their battle. "Noah, give Orion a hand. It looks like Argus is giving him a run for his money."

"On it!" Noah agreed, running over to help the Silver Ranger.

Meanwhile, up in the Penthouse, Blood Stalker was finding that his assignment wasn't as easy as he'd first suspected. Although these people seemed to be human, they were a lot stronger and more skilled than he had expected. He had Trent in a wrist-lock, and was keeping Tom pinned down with blaster fire. He only let go of Trent when Alex hit him with a blast, putting him through a wall into another room.

"OK, my dad's account is seriously taking a beating." Trent said as Tom helped him up, stroking his shoulder. "I'd hate to think of the bill he has coming."

"It'll be worth it, trust me." Alex assured him. He saw the elevator coming up, and smiled. "Alright guys, we all know what's coming."

"I just wish they were a bit quicker about it." Tom complained. "If the Separatists had waited this long for back-up, the Regulars would have overwhelmed them easily!"

"Guys, hit the deck!" Trent called out as he saw something through the large, panoramic window leading out onto the balcony. Gia, in her guise as the Wild Force Yellow Ranger carried Jake and Emma through the sky, crashing through the window. They all rolled to their feet as they arrived.

"I usually like dogs!" Emma called out as she saw Blood Stalker coming back through the wall. "If you want to leave these guys alone, we'll let you go home with your tail between your legs!"

"Seriously?" Gia asked.

"Sorry, I'm kind of relentless when I have a contract." Blood Stalker announced, pulling out two hand blasters. "You could say I'm like a dog with a bone!"

"More dog puns?" Gia asked, looking to Jake as they fanned out, dodging blasts as they went. She looked to Jake. "I thought that was your thing!"

"I guess I'm a bad influence." He replied, putting up a hand to gesture Trent and Tom to stay back. "Don't worry, we'll keep you..."

They just leapt over him, rushing towards Blood Stalker with swords drawn. They smashed the blasters from his hands, but he managed to grab both of them, and in an impressive show of strength, threw both of them clean across the room.

"...safe." Jake concluded. Alex threw his blaster rifle aside as he fired off the last rounds in the energy cell, before pulling out hand blasters. He brought Blood Stalker to his knees with blasts as he threw himself into the air, driving a hard knee into his face.

"OK, who the hell are these guys?" Emma asked. Just then, the elevator door opened and Jen arrived with Katie.

"Alright Alex, that's enough!" Jen called out, aiming a blaster at him. "You're under arrest!"

"Great, the other half is here." Trent complained.

"Alright guys, exactly like we talked about." Alex told them. "NOW!"

Trent and Tom both pulled out blasters, keeping Jen and Katie pinned down, while the Corsair Rangers were kept busy with Blood Stalker. Alex meanwhile ran and leapt out of the window, straight off the balcony. As soon as they saw him leap, Trent and Tom looked to each other and nodded, before throwing their blasters to the floor. They held up their hands in surrender.

"OK, that's enough." Trent announced. "We'll come quietly."

"Where is it?" Jen asked them, coming over with a set of handcuffs. Blood Stalker was still busy fighting the Rangers, but his hearing was such he could still hear them. Trent noticed him looking and fulfilled his part of the plan.

"Alex has it." He informed her. "He's got the control unit."

"That's all I needed to hear!" Blood Stalker snarled as he threw Gia to the floor aggressively. He ran and leapt off the balcony, activating a command on a control in his armour. An anti-gravity device slowed his descent, allowing him to survive the "OK, this isn't good." Gia muttered, looking to the others. She saw Jen and Katie handcuffing Trent and Tom, and started to approach them. "OK, what I think is clear is that you guys are our time travellers, now...who are you and what just happened here?"

"Wait, wasn't there a Ranger team from the future?" Emma asked. Jen just nodded, holding up her badge.

"I'm Katie, former Time Force Yellow Ranger." She introduced herself. "This is Jen, the former Pink Ranger. And these two are two of our most wanted."

"Trent Fernandez and Tom Oliver." Katie introduced them. "As for the other one...he's Time Force's most wanted fugitive."

"That sounds like our song." Emma sighed as she heard sirens. "Look, we don't have the best of relationships with law enforcement at the moment. We should continue this conversation somewhere a little more private."

Just then, the elevator arrived, bringing the rest of the Rangers with it.

"Argus bugged out." Noah informed them. "We saw that other one running off into the street after some guy."

"Guys, this is Time Force." Gia told them. "They're former Rangers..."

"We know, Trip and Lucas introduced themselves." Troy told them. "We need to get out of here before the authorities arrive. I've already called the Galleon."

"What do we do about them?" Gia asked, gesturing to Trent and Tom. Katie just sighed.

"I guess we have to take them with us." She replied. "We can't take them back to Time Force yet."

"Why not?" Jake asked. "There's only one of them left."

"Yeah, but he's the most dangerous one." Jen told them. "Even the four of us will have a hard time getting him back."

With that, the Red Galleon flew into view, hovering by the side of the building, a boarding plank extending out to the balcony. Troy just grabbed Tom, dragging him to his feet.

"Come on, we can straighten this out on the ship." He stated. "I don't fancy being around to explain all this damage."

With that, they all quickly boarded the ship, leaving the scene before the authorities could arrive.

Back on The Armada Command Ship, Argus was in Lavira's lab getting repaired after his battle. His armour had held up through most of it, and most of the damage was superficial. Damaras came into the room, looking to Lavira.

"How are the repairs coming?" He asked.

"He's almost back to a hundred percent." She informed him.

"The Silver Ranger is stronger than he looks. I underestimated him." Argus stated. "That toothpick of his is more powerful than it appears."

"Unfortunately we've lost Blood Stalker!" Damaras grumbled. "He's turned off his communicator. He doesn't show up on any of our scans."

"He always was troublesome that way." Lavira commented. "If he doesn't want to be found, then he won't be. He'll contact us when he wants back-up."

"Get Argus back online." Damaras told her. "I'll keep looking for Blood Stalker. If he's pursuing this time traveller so obsessively, he must believe as I do that he has something of value."

With that, he left the room, leaving Lavira to her work.

On the Red Galleon, Katie was just finishing up securing Trent and Tom to a couple of chairs as the team all awaited an explanation what was happening. After all, even among Power Rangers, it wasn't every day someone just decided to take a little trip through time. The Time Force Rangers had shown up twice now, once to take down the mutants plaguing Silver Hills, and once briefly the following year to help out the Wild Force team.

"I don't know where to start." Katie said dejectedly as she tried to figure out how to proceed. "It's...it's complicated."

"What's so complicated about it?" Troy asked.

"There's a lot we can't risk telling you." Lucas explained. "Time Force Regulations..."

"OK, who exactly cares about regulations?" Jake asked. "We're pirates!"

"The regulations are there for a reason." Trip told them. "Anything we do here, anything at all risks disrupting the time line. Even having this conversation could potentially cause huge disruptions to the way history panned out."

"I've seen just about every time travel story book, comic and movie ever made." Noah assured him.

"Well, it's a bit more complicated than that." Lucas told him. "You're the scientist right?"

"Yeah, kind of." Noah answered.

"Well, what if I told you that one day you'd win a Nobel prize?" Lucas explained. Noah just grinned.

"That would be great!" Noah said with excitement. "I always wanted to..."

"But you've not won it YET." Lucas reminded him. "What effect could just hearing you WOULD win one have on you? How would it change your work?"

"You could work hard and actually accomplish it." Katie told him. "Or, just because you've heard you will, it could make you presume it's your destiny, take away your motivation to work for it just because you presume you're going to. You don't make one discovery or you mess up one experiment because you're not giving it your all, and all of a sudden no more Nobel prize."

"And while I'm sure most people have thought about going back in time and taking a crack at Hitler or something, how do you know someone worse wouldn't take the reins...someone with the military know-how to actually succeed where he failed?" Trip asked. "His lack of military experience was a huge deciding factor in the war."

"OK, OK, we've got it." Troy sighed, looking to the fugitives. "Since you're from a significant way in the future, I doubt anything you can tell us about what you're doing here will affect much in the short-term. Why don't we start with them?"

"We've come back from the year 3012." Jen began. "After our tenure as Rangers, after we finally brought the mutant fugitives to justice, things went pretty well. A lot of reforms took place that made things significantly better for human and mutant alike. Crime was all but eradicated."

"In one year, the most serious crime reported to Time Force was a dispute over ownership of a cat." Lucas said with a smile. "Law enforcement's become pretty boring to be honest."

"So what changed?" Noah asked.

"We don't know. One day there was a massive shift in temporal energy." Jen explained. "None of us knew why, but suddenly our morphers stopped working."

"We...uh...might know what happened there." Gia stammered out. "The Armada destroyed Eltar, the Morphing Grid...the original one your powers were connected to anyway was destroyed."

"But...how?" Katie asked. "That never happened in our timeline."

"I guess something altered about the past." Jen said in an accusatory tone, glaring at Trent and Tom.

"We're in the process of setting up a new Morphing Grid to support the powers." Troy told them, pulling out the Lost Galaxy Red Ranger key. "All the powers are contained in keys like this. We've been gathering them for a while now."

"Which reminds me, do you have your keys?" Noah asked. "The keys tend to be in the possession of the Rangers that used them..."

"We don't have them I'm afraid." Lucas replied.

"So, you didn't come back for the keys." Gia stated. "So what did you come back for?"

"Time Force keeps an archive record in a temporal field, disconnected from the time line. It's the only way we can know if anything's changed about the time line." Katie explained. "When something changes, the only people that know about it are the ones that were involved. Anyone else, by virtue of being part of the time stream, their memories change to accommodate the new knowledge. It's pretty dangerous knowledge to have, so it's only accessible to Time Force officers at the highest levels. One of those was my husband, Alex."

"Your husband?" Emma asked. "The guy you're chasing is your husband?"

"Wow, that..that's pretty messed up." Noah said sympathetically.

"Alex and I got back together a couple of years after we got back to 3000." Jen told them. "But after the morphers stopped working, he started spending more and more time in the archive. He became really distant. I tried to get him to talk about what he had seen, but he wouldn't tell me. He started spending a lot of time meeting with Time Force Command, trying to tell them what he had seen. He ended up being suspended after one of those meetings when he suggested going back in time to change something. They completely flipped out.

"I'm guessing he went ahead and did it anyway." Troy suggested.

"He did." Jen told them. "He broke into Time Force Command and stole some of our tech. He opened up a gateway and went back in time, aiming to change something. They tried sending agents after him, but no one was able to bring him in. I ended up having to take on the mission."

"He picked up the chuckle brothers here at some point." Lucas told them, gesturing to Tom and Trent. "This is Tom Oliver, a clone of Tommy Oliver that was made by Lord Zedd. He was sent to Colonial Angel Grove with the Green Ranger powers once they convinced him which was the right side.

"And this is Trent Fernandez, the former White Dino Ranger." Katie explained.

"Wait...THE Trent Fernandez?" Noah screamed, his excitement overcoming him. "Dude, your comic books are legendary! You're like...the next Todd McFarlane or something! You're amazing!"

"Noah, perspective?" Gia asked, shoving him a little. Trent just smiled.

"It's always nice to meet a fan though." Trent replied.

"The problem is, Alex is dangerous enough on his own." Jen told them. "But he stole some very dangerous weapons technology. He brought the Q-Rex with him."

"Great, he has a zord?" Emma asked. "That's all we need!"

"Come on, how dangerous could he be?" Jake asked. "He doesn't even have Ranger powers!"

"Guys, we can't risk underestimating him." Jen assured them. "Even without the Zord, he's the best Time Force has ever had."

"Yeah, but..."

"Guys, this isn't just because he's my husband." Jen interrupted them. "When we faced Ransik, he actually defeated the whole team. We were only able to bring him in because his daughter convinced him the error of his ways and he came in voluntarily."

"In his first Ranger mission, Alex brought Ransik in single-handed." Jen informed them.

"Oh." Emma said dejectedly. "And here I thought this was going to be easy."


	13. A Gift From the Future

Blood Stalker made his way through the streets in hot pursuit of the remaining fugitive. He could sense that his hunt was nearing its completion. He no longer had any accomplices. Whether they had been captured or killed, he didn't really know, nor did he really care. All that mattered was that now, only his true target remained, and he was only a human.

He approached the harbour, finding the scent growing stronger. His quarry was close. It was a common misconception that running water masked scents, but it barely made any difference to one as skilled as him. As he neared a cannery, he smiled. The strong scent of fish, his quarry had obviously intended that to mask his smell. He knew that hunters on this planet had trained their dogs to discern smells from their intended targets for years by dragging herring across the ground before setting them loose...the term "red herring" had been common use for a misleading clue ever since. However, just like those hunting hounds, he could still make out the distinctive trail of his quarry.

He could also smell something else. There were other people in the cannery. They were amassed in a large group near the door. He pulled out a blaster, and lunged forward, kicking the door off its hinges. As he went inside, he panned around this way and that, finding himself in a small room, only about ten feet by ten feet, and lined with monitors, all of which were showing only static. He recognised it as a security office. The group of men were piled in a corner, unmoving, dressed in security uniforms. They were the night watchmen, there to prevent anyone from stealing from the cannery out with business hours. He could still smell them, but he instinctively checked anyway. They were breathing, but it was shallow. They had been sedated and brought here, before the security system was disabled.

"Good work." He complimented Alex. "But not good enough."

He kicked open the door, moving into the main room of the cannery. It was immense, and lined with machinery, designed to help prepare and can the fish coming in from the harbour, while above the machinery, walkways criss-crossed over the top of the machinery, creating a maze of sorts. He smiled as he realised what it was.

"You think this is a game human?" He snarled as he looked around for the elusive fugitive. "I have stalked some of the most vicious and powerful enemies of The Armada across entire star systems!"

"Then finding a human in a cannery shouldn't present a problem for you!" Alex replied, his voice echoing around the warehouse. Blood Stalker lifted his head and started to sniff the air, before heading down one of the corridors.

Meanwhile, back on the Red Galleon, the Rangers, along with Lucas, Trip and Katie were keeping track of the city, hoping for signs of Alex. Jen came back into the room, but shook her head as the others looked to her.

"They're not talking." She told them. "Whatever my husband's told them, they're obviously more worried about that than they are of what Time Force would do to them."

"What would Time Force do to them?" Noah asked her. The others all stared at him, before a thought occurred to them. Jen hadn't really been specific when she had mentioned there would be consequences. They looked up to her.

"They'll be taken to trial..."

"What happens after the trial?" Troy asked. "These men, as far as I can tell they aren't from your time. Tom has a life in Angel Grove..."

"And Trent's from this time." Noah stated. He knew of Trent because of his love of comic books. He had discovered Trent's some time ago, having purchased virtually everything he had ever produced. His collaborations with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had produced some of his favourite graphic novels, but it was his solo work that Noah loved the most. He couldn't believe that one of his favourite artists of all time was not only a former Ranger like him, although it would explain where he got a lot of his inspiration for his work, but had somehow become tangled up with a time fugitive. "People are going to notice they're gone."

"Actually, no they're not." Trip assured him. "Because they're not from our time, we can't afford to remove them. It would risk creating too many problems with the timeline. The trial would be to determine how much they know that they shouldn't."

"Their memories would then be modified and they'd be returned as close to their own time as possible." Lucas assured them. "Those that know them will barely know they were gone at all."

"Alex is the one that should worry." Katie told them. "He's facing some pretty hefty charges back home. Grand theft, creation of paradox, historical kidnap..."

"Trent and Tom went willingly!" Gia interrupted her.

"They probably won't see it that way." Jen assured her. "The fact is, when we bring him in, he's facing some pretty heavy time in prison."

"Here!" Emma announced, attracting everyone's attention. "There are all sorts of energy signatures at the cannery." Lucas came to her side, checking out the readings.

"Those are energy weapons alright." Lucas said with a nod. "And unless Earth technology suddenly jumped about fifty years or so..."

"Alex." Jen replied, preparing her blaster. Troy held up a hand. "Get out of the way, we need to..."

"Alex is your problem, I can go with that." Troy told her. "But that Commander is still out there, and that's our problem."

Jen thought about it for a moment, before she nodded.

"Keep that Armada thing off our backs." She told him. "That's all I ask."

"What about those two?" Noah asked, flicking a thumb in the direction of the door to the room where they were holding Trent and Tom. Troy thought about it for a moment, before looking to Orion.

"What?" He asked.

"This Commander, he's probably going to go big once we defeat him." Troy told him. "We need someone to stay and watch the prisoners."

"You're kidding right?" Orion asked. "You want me to babysit?"

"You heard the Red Guy." Jake said with a smirk. "You're great at beating up X-borgs and the likes, but this needs the Rangers with the big boy toys."

"Jake!" Emma hissed in a low voice, not appreciating the way he spoke to Orion. However, she saw the way Orion was looking at the team. Jake's dislike wasn't exactly lost on him, but he just nodded.

"He's right." Orion answered. "I'm the logical choice."

"But Orion..."

"I'm the only one that can't help in a zord battle!" He interrupted Gia. He turned to Jen. "I'll keep an eye on the prisoners. You go and get your fugitive."

"We'll drop the three of you off somewhere safe." Troy assured him as he headed to the controls to bring around the Red Galleon. Orion just gathered up his morpher and went to collect the prisoners.

Back in the Cannery, the hunt was still going on. Alex pressed his back to some machinery, taking a deep breath before moving on. He heard something clatter along the floor. He looked down, just in time to see a grenade rolling, ending up near his feet. He leapt out the way just in time as it exploded. He clutched his ribs as he got up, reclaiming his blaster.

"I have to admit, you're good human." Blood Stalker said with a smile. Alex fired off a couple of shots, forcing him into cover. "I've never had such an entertaining hunt with a human victim."

"Wouldn't you need to get me first for me to be a victim?" Alex taunted him, throwing a gas grenade. He ran down the corridor, heading for the back of the warehouse. He stopped by the door to the next room, and blasted open the door, running inside, before another blast threw him to the floor. Blood Stalker headed towards the door.

"You must be about ready to give up by now." He taunted him. "You're making this far too easy...and by the smell of things...you're already injured."

Blood Stalker confirmed this by running a hand on the door frame, picking up some blood as he looked into the darkened room ahead of him.

"Now you're going to try and hide in the dark?" He asked. "With the trail you're leaving, you may as well be lighting the way with neon lights!"

"Exactly, don't you think this has all been a little too easy?" Alex asked him. Blood Stalker was blinded for a moment as a couple of head lamps turned on. He could see what looked like a massive drill pointed right his way. He heard an engine powering up.

"Aw crap." Blood Stalker muttered as he heard a weapon powering up.

The Rangers and the former Time Force Rangers arrived outside, just in time to see an entire wall blow out of the cannery. They all shielded themselves from flying debris, before looking to see what had happened. They could see a beam coming down from orbit before the dust cleared, and Blood Stalker started to grow.

"OK, this is the part we need to worry about." Troy told her. "You all find Alex..."

Just then, they heard engines and the ground started to shake. Jen and the former Time Force Rangers all gulped.

"OK, what's that?" Gia asked.

"Something very, very bad." Katie responded. They all watched as a large, blue and yellow war machine rose up out of the wreckage of the cannery. It looked like a gigantic ship, with a massive drill at the front. It lit up as it rose into the air.

"He actually did it." Lucas murmured. "The crazy bastard actually did it!"

As the ship opened fire on Blood Stalker, it lit up the city.

"Whatever it is, we need to stop it before it levels everything!" Troy responded as the Rangers ran off to form the Megazord. Lucas heard some voices coming from part of the cannery that was still standing. A moment later, some security guards staggered out. They were covered in dirt, but otherwise unharmed.

"We'll get you help." Katie assured them as she and Trip went to get them. Jen was about to help them when she suddenly looked up.

"He's...he's still here." She told them, pulling out her blaster.

"Jen, come back!" Lucas called out as she ran into the wreckage. He looked to the others, before running after her to help her look for Alex.

In another part of the city, Trent and Tom were sitting on a rooftop, hand-cuffed to a drain pipe while Orion watched over them. He had his morpher at the ready, just in case they tried anything. He only turned away from them as he heard something happening in the city. Through large plumes of smoke rising from the area, he could see the drilled attack ship flying through the air, firing at Blood Stalker.

"That's your cue to leave." Trent told him. Orion just snapped around and looked to him.

"What are you talking about?" He asked. "The Rangers..."

"That ship isn't an Armada weapon. That's what we've been working on all this time!" Trent told him. "It's what we're here to deliver."

Orion watched as it opened fire, hitting not only Blood Stalker, but also the Megazord...and the city as well. He turned on the prisoners, morphing as he did so. He levelled his Silver Spear at them.

"You brought this here?" He asked. "You brought this destruction?"

"You don't understand yet, but you soon will." Tom told him. "We know you have our Ranger Keys."

"That is none of your concern!" Orion snapped.

"Trust me; call the Quantum Ranger, White Dino Ranger and Green Mighty Morphin' keys." Trent told him. "They should explain everything!"

Orion didn't know what to make of this. He knew that there was little he could do to help the team, and summoned the keys, but not before levelling the Siler Spear at them one more time.

"If this is a trick..."

Before he could answer though, he found himself in a white light, facing a vision. The White, Green and Quantum Rangers stood before him, showing him the ship he had seen. He suddenly understood as their knowledge flooded his mind. He came back into reality and looked to them.

"Alex knew that you needed the firepower here. Without it, the war would last for decades!" Tom stated. "He recruited me and Trent because he knew we had intimate knowledge of our own zords, so we re-purposed the Q-Rex with elements of all three zords."

"Without Eric, he couldn't activate it, which is why he recruited me." Trent added. "And just like My Drago Zord..."

"I have to tame it." Orion interrupted him. "Only I can bring the Q-Rex Drill under control."

"Go." Tom told him. "We're not going anywhere."

Orion just nodded and ran off, leaping across the rooftops towards the battle.

Over in the Megazord, the Rangers were taking a pummelling as not only was Blood Stalker attacking them, but the Q-Rex Drill too. The Zord fell to the ground, powering down out of SPD Mode as it did so.

"Man, this thing is tough!" Gia snarled. "I swear, if Jen doesn't catch her husband, I'm going to rip him apart for bringing this thing here!"

They were rocked by another blast as the Q-Rex Drill flew past. Jake checked his screen, and saw a glint of silver on a nearby roof top.

"Guys, check it out!" He stated. "What's he doing here?"

On the rooftop, Orion placed the White Dino Ranger key into his morpher, and found himself connecting with the Q-Rex Drill directly. He could feel its rage and intensity. It was operating on instinct, waiting on its master to guide it. He stood before it, holding up his Silver Spear.

"I understand your rage! I feel it every day myself!" Orion called to it. "But together, we can use that rage to ensure The Armada can never harm anyone again!"

The Q-Rex Drill moved closer, turning to the side, and a doorway opened. Placing the Quantum Ranger key into his morpher, Orion leapt inside, taking the controls. He turned the ship towards Blood Stalker as he placed the Green Ranger key into a key hole. The zord shifted in shape, turning into what could only be described as a dragon. Noah couldn't believe his eyes.

"Guys, that's...that's a lot like the first Dragon Zord!" He called out to them. "Tom had the Green Ranger powers..."

They watched as he attacked ferociously, destroying Blood Stalker's armour, leaving him exposed to his attacks. Orion placed the White Dino Ranger key into another keyhole, turning it and transforming the Zord into another Megazord mode.

"Isn't that a lot like the old Reefside Zord?" Emma asked. Noah just nodded.

"I guess we know what Tom and Trent's contributions to the project were." Gia surmised. They watched as Blood Stalker screamed in anger, his weapons smashed to pieces in his hands, leaving him defenceless. Orion powered up the final attack, obliterating him completely. They all watched in amazement as Orion leapt from the Zord, and it flew into the sky, disappearing in a bright flash.

"That Zord, it's incredible!" Troy remarked. "Alex wasn't trying to cause trouble..."

"He was trying to deliver a new Zord." Noah concluded. "He was trying to help!"

"We need to stop Jen before she makes a huge mistake!" Troy told them as he got up from his seat, leaving the Zord.

Down on the ground, Jen and Lucas were searching the wreckage for any sign of Alex. They heard some wreckage move, and saw him stumbling towards them. They levelled their blasters his way.

"Jen..."

"Stop right there Alex, this has gone on long enough!" She warned him. He started to take a few more steps towards them, only for Lucas to flick the safety off on his blaster.

"Alex, that's far enough!" Lucas told him. "You're under arrest, it's over!"

"I just need to know..."

"Please, don't make me do this." Jen begged him, a tear rolling down her face. He looked to her.

"Jen, I couldn't involve you. One of us had to be free to take care of our daughter." He reminded her. "If I'd told you why I was doing this, you'd have come with me, but for her sake, for Elaine's sake...I HAD to do this alone!"

"Alex, just give it UP!" Lucas yelled. Just then, Troy and Emma came in.

"Alex!" Emma yelled. "It's over, we got him."

"You did?" He asked.

"We also got your little gift." Troy assured him. Alex breathed a sigh of relief as he dropped his blaster.

"Then it really is all over." He answered, holding his hands out in front of him. "Then I'll come in quietly."

"Wait...that's it?" Lucas asked. "After all this, just like that?"

"I'm not going to resist." Alex assured him. "Just read me my rights."

"No." Troy told them. "It's not going down like that."

"Guys, we appreciate the help, but this is really none of your concern." Jen told them as she handcuffed her husband. Emma placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Please, let us take you to the ship." She asked her. "Let him explain..."

"Anything he has to explain, he can do at Time Force Headquarters." Lucas said gruffly. Troy just smiled as he stood in Lucas' path, blocking his way as he started to escort Alex away. He could tell that there were parts of this story he would be unlikely to explain to a court. He didn't think it would matter much to Time Force, but at least it might help his former comrades understand."

"You're time travellers." She reminded her. "What difference could a few minutes make?"


	14. Alex's Explanation

The Rangers got back to the Red Galleon, and resumed their journey, taking the former Time Force Rangers with them, leaving Boston to recover from the after-effects of the battle with Blood Stalker. Out on the deck, Jen was looking out over the ocean. Troy had bought Alex some time, convincing his former team mates to wait until he had a chance to explain his side of the story, before they took him back to 3012 to face trial for his crimes against Time Force. It was against regulations; they had explicit instructions from higher command to bring him straight back to a maximum security facility to await his trial. She had a feeling that the main reason for that was the same reason they had sent other agents after him before they finally recruited her. They were worried about sending his former team in case past loyalties and personal ties got in the way of their mission.

As Emma arrived, she was holding a device in her hand, above which seemed to be a doll of sorts. It was only as she got right next to Jen, she could see a slight glow from it, indicating that it was made of light. It was a hologram, but it was far more advanced than anything currently available in their time. It showed a young girl, possibly around ten to 12 years old, with a slender build that was not quite ready to mature, but didn't look far off it. She had pale skin, and shoulder-length blonde hair, with grey eyes, and a bright smile that indicated a time of great joy. Emma couldn't really describe her clothing, but knowing where Jen was from, she presumed that clothing styles had changed in the following 900 years or so.

"I'm guessing that's your kid?" Emma asked. Jen turned as she said this, her attention brought back to her present situation. She smiled and nodded.

"Her name's Elaine." Jen told her. "She's my whole world. I know she loves staying with her grandparents, Alex's folks spoil her rotten, but it's killed me being away from her for so long."

"How long have you been away?" Emma asked her. "I guess with all this jumping around in time it must be hard to tell."

"It's been a couple of months now." Jen sighed. "It feels like longer though. I have no idea how I'm going to make any of this up to her. I've been gone a couple of months, her dad...he's been gone even longer, and when I do go back to her, I have the wonderful job of telling her I've arrested her dad."

"That...yeah, that's a conversation I wouldn't begin to know how to have with my kid." Emma conceded. "I really don't envy you."

"You have...?"

"I was speaking hypothetically." Emma assured her. "But I would like kids at some point."

"She's a real handful at times, but I wouldn't a thing about her for the world." Jen said with a smile as she sat on the safety rail. "I guess she didn't have much of a chance, between me and her father...being a trouble maker is kind of in her genetics. She's a complete daddy's girl, she worships Alex, I don't know..."

"Hey, if she's anything like the two of you, I'll bet she's smart too." Emma assured her. "Sure, it's rough when your parents go through hard times, but I'm sure she'll figure it out."

"I was told to bring him straight back, I was told not to talk to him or engage him or...anything." Jen explained to Emma. "I guess Central Command was worried because of our relationship I'd let him go or...or join him or something."

"Would you?" Emma asked her. Jen just shrugged as she put the hologram away.

"I can't say the thought hasn't crossed my mind." Jen admitted. "I just...I have to know why he did it. He said he did it for Elaine, for me, but...how can any of this...?"

"I guess we're going to find out." Emma interrupted her. She looked out over the ocean. "You know, when times get hard, I like to come up her, or into the Crow's nest. I just like to look around, to remind myself what I'm fighting for."

"I kind of heard you were something of an environmentalist." Jen said as she looked out too. "It is beautiful when it's quiet like this."

"How...?"

"Well, I can't go into details because...well...you know, time lines and everything." Jen began. "But it might please you to know that places like this are still pretty much the same."

"Really?" Emma asked her. "I'd have thought..."

"Somewhere along the line, people figure things out. They find a middle ground a balance, that's what humans do." Jen assured her. "We have a lot of great technology, we just...figured out how not to let it become the be-all-and-end-all of our lives."

"That's really good to hear." Emma said with a smile. Just then, Troy came up onto the deck.

"We're out a safe distance, and Trip got the cloaking technology up and running." He assured them. The Zords had taken quite a bit of a beating, and needed some TLC to get them back to a hundred percent, but they were still operational. "It's time."

"I guess now you're going to get your answers." Emma replied. "Are you..."

"I'm ready." She interrupted the younger girl, getting up. "Let's go talk to my husband."

Down below deck, the others were sitting around, waiting on Jen getting back. Lucas and Katie were keeping an eye on their prisoners, but they had since been released from their bonds at the insistence of the Corsair Rangers. They had confiscated their time portal controller, and they were now out over the middle of the ocean, so it wasn't as though they had anywhere to run to. They weren't trying to escape anyway, and had kept their word to stay.

Tom was looking around the ship with something of a smile on his face. While he had the first sixteen years of Tommy Oliver's memories, being his clone, he had only been in modern times for a few days. He had spent almost his whole life in Colonial times, and had grown accustomed to their ways and styles, so it intrigued him to see that the Rangers had styled themselves after the pirates that had been common on the high seas at that time. The ship itself was superficially much like the ships he had seen coming in and out of ports back home regularly.

"I bet this reminds you of the British coming." Jake chuckled.

"Regulars." Tom corrected him. Jake just looked confused. "The Red Coats were referred to as the Regulars."

"But...what about Paul Revere and...?"

"I've still got that to look forward to." Tom said with a chuckle. "But think about it, how much use would it have been to run through town screaming 'The British are coming'?"

"America was a colony back then!" Gia reminded him. "Practically EVERYONE was British! It wouldn't have been terribly descriptive."

"There you go, that's the last one." Trent said, shaking out his wrist as he handed Noah a comic book. He was already holding a huge stack. They didn't take much with them, but the Rangers had managed to take a few personal items to give them some reminders of home. For Noah, it was a huge stack of comic books, many of which Trent had worked on. Having met one of his idols, he was taking the opportunity which he wasn't certain he'd get again to have him sign them. By the looks of things, Trent was coming down with a monster case of writers' cramp. "I have to say, that's a hell of a collection. I haven't seen some of these in years. Now I know how Carson felt when I brought his first comic to a signing."

"Carson Brady! I LOVE his work!" Noah yelled.

"So do I. My first professional job was a collaboration with him." Trent said with a smile.

"Yeah, I know...I used to own a copy." Noah grumbled. "Until my dad used it as a coaster...comic books and coffee do not mix."

"Well, if we ever run into each other again, maybe I can hook you up with a copy." Trent replied. "You know...if I remember any of this. It kind of sucks that my memory will be modified AGAIN, I'd love to be able to write some of this down."

"WITH some appropriate modifications of course!" He added hastily as he saw Lucas was about to say something. "I have a feeling it would have been some of my best work."

"Noah, if you're quite finished?" Troy asked. Noah just put his comics away and backed off, knowing they had more important things to discuss. Troy looked to Alex.

"We owe you for the rescue, and for the new Zord." Troy told him. "I figured the least we could do is give you the floor to talk to your team before you go to trial."

Alex stood up, making his way into the middle of the room. He looked first of all to Trent and Tom.

"Thanks for your help; I couldn't have done it without you." He told them gratefully. They both just nodded, shaking his hand before he went back to the centre to begin his story.

"As you know, back in our time, our morphers suddenly stopped working. There were a lot of theories, but no one really knew why." Alex told them. "I was investigating, but I knew that I wasn't going to get any answers, so I used my access to the central archives and cross-referenced our history and the original to see what had changed. I knew that outside of the stasis field, no one would know, every change that occurred would modify history, and our memories. When I got into the archives, that was when I learned about the destruction of Eltar."

"That's what destroyed the original Morphing Grid." Troy stated. Alex just looked at him.

"Well, that didn't happen in the original timeline." Alex told him. "The Armada never attacked Eltar, the Morphing Grid was never destroyed, and none of...this...ever happened. You were all still the Megaforce."

"How could you...?"

"I have a...connection...to the time stream." Alex told them. "I can't explain it fully, but it's something to do with my connection to the original morphing grid, and a shift in my own time line, I can feel when something's not right with it."

"Shift?" Jen asked him. "What do you mean?"

Alex breathed a deep sigh as he prepared to tell her something he had kept from her for years, something he had never told her because he didn't want to upset or worry her.

"When I tried to stop Ransik all those years ago, when I fought him before he went back through time..."

"He almost killed you." Jen said as she recalled the incident. "I thought he had, but when you came back, I knew..."

"That's the thing, he didn't ALMOST kill me." Alex told her. "In the original time line, I did die. I died in your arms just like you remembered."

"So, you were brought back by something we did?" Trip asked as he saw Jen staring at him, speechless. "Like a butterfly effect...something just made a marginal difference to that battle so..."

"That's exactly right." Alex told him. "But ever since then, I was intrinsically tied to the time stream. I could feel when something wasn't right with it because...something's not right with me. In a way, I'm a living, breathing paradox."

"So when you found out about the attack on Eltar, you came back?" Troy asked. Alex shook his head.

"At first I tried to bring it to the attention of Central Command." He explained. "I tried to tell them what had happened, I tried to show them the difference it made to the time line, the devastation the war caused...in the new time line, the war with The Armada lasted almost 57 years."

"WHAT?" The Rangers all screamed in unison. It was something none of them could begin to comprehend. They knew that The Armada was strong, but to think that it would take so long, that the world would face their threat for all that time was sobering to say the least.

"I tried to appeal to them, to suggest that we help, but they refused to listen." Alex told them. "With each day that passed, and each time I insisted we had to go back, more and more was changing, but they never realised it because their memories always changed. I started spending more and more time in the archives, using the stasis field to prevent too much of my own memory being changed. Then one day, when I was looking through the files, I saw something else, another pivotal event. The destruction of Andresia."

Orion got up hearing this. He looked to Alex, utterly confused.

"My planet?" He asked.

"More accurately, when you activated your morpher." He told Orion. "You already know that your morpher is tied to all the Sixth Rangers. That it connects you all within the Morphing Grid. That connection, that was something that didn't exist in the original time line. Your morpher was never activated...but when you did, history shifted, and the war...it shortened by fifteen years."

"Fifteen years?" Jake asked. "Him becoming a Ranger cut fifteen years off a 57 year war?"

"I guess it's true what they say, one man CAN make a difference." Gia said, giving Orion a little smile.

"That's when I knew, I just knew that the answer had something to do with you." Alex told him. "That was when I got the idea that if the power of the Sixth Rangers was so vital, so pivotal in history, perhaps that was what was needed to get things back on track. I knew that Central Command would never back me though, so I stole the Q-Rex and the equipment I needed and went into the past."

"He picked us up and explained everything." Trent added. "He told us he picked us because he needed our connection to our Zords to create something from the Q-Rex that would work in this time."

"Both of our Zords were tied to our minds." Tom explained. "The Dragon Zord had a spiritual connection to the Green Power Coin, which allowed me to control it remotely, that's why he needed me."

"And my Zord had its own mind, based on its Dino DNA." Trent concluded. "As for the rest...well...we just couldn't resist pimping it out a little."

"I figured since your morpher gave you the power of all of us, it would allow you to control it." Alex told Orion. "And you didn't disappoint."

He placed a hand on Orion's shoulder.

"_Use it wisely._" He told him. Orion just looked to him.

"You speak Andresian?" He asked. Alex just smiled.

"A little." He answered. He then looked to Jen, seeing her staring at him in disbelief. He knelt with her, holding her hand softly.

"I'm sorry Jen." He said as he cradled her chin, looking into her eyes. "I knew what the price was going to be, but I knew that if I didn't do this, eventually things would change to a point that things in our time...I don't even want to think how it would be. I got my second chance with you. I earned your love back, and I love you and Elaine more than anything else. I wouldn't let anything put that at risk...no matter what the cost is to me."

"Why wouldn't you just tell me?" Jen asked him. "I'd have come with you! I'd have helped you!"

"Then what would happen to Elaine?" He asked her in response. He pulled her in, kissing her softly. "I never doubted for a second you'd have helped me, but I couldn't bear to have Elaine lose both of us."

"She won't." Jen assured him. "And I don't care what it costs, or how long it takes, we're going to fight these charges. I refuse to let this happen, I'm not losing you!"

"You'll never lose me." Alex said with a smile. He got up and held his hands out to Lucas. "This is the part where you read me my rights."

"I don't think that'll be necessary." Lucas answered, shaking his head. As the former Time Force Rangers assembled, Jen came over to Emma.

"Just remember, the future isn't set in stone, everything you do can affect it." She reminded them. "Every moment is a pivotal moment. Make sure it counts."

"We will." Orion assured her. "Thanks for the Zord Alex."

"I know you'll make good use of it." Alex stated.

"I just wish we had more time together." Gia said as they prepared to leave.

"I just wish we could do more to help." Trip answered. "I can tell you one thing, when you DO find our keys, you don't have to worry about earning our approval, you already have our vote."

Jen paused for a moment, before pulling her hologram projector out of her pocket. She pressed it into Emma's hand.

"What...Jen, you can't..."

"Hey, what do I need a hologram for? I'm going home to the real thing." She assured her. "Besides, I can get more. I have a feeling it'll be more help to you than it will to me."

"Good luck with the trial." Troy said to Alex.

With that, they disappeared in a flash of light, heading back to their own time. Emma put the hologram projector away as they came together.

"Man, that sucks for Alex." Noah grumbled. "He saved...God knows how many people, and after all that, he still has to go and face trial."

"I guess we have more than a few warrants out for us." Gia commented. "Sometimes it sucks being a hero. But would you change any of this?"

"Are you kidding?" Noah asked as he gripped his newly-signed comics tightly. "Not a chance!"

"Anyway, just look at what we've done of over the last few days alone!" Emma stated, smiling at Orion. "We picked up a new Ranger, a new Zord..."

"By the time Prince Vekar stops sulking, he's not going to know what hit him." Gia agreed. They all looked to Jake, who had always been Orion's most vocal critic. He just smiled.

"Well, I can't say that new Zord isn't sick." He conceded. "Not to mention that Silver Spear hurts like a bitch!"

"Well, I think we've earned a rest day." Troy announced. "Who says we find somewhere to pick up some burgers and have a movie night?"

"Shouldn't we be looking for more keys?" Orion asked. Troy just shook his head.

"I think we've got time." He replied, eliciting a groan from the rest of his team as they prepared the ship for the next leg of their journey.

Fin.

**A/N:** Well, that's the Silver Ranger's introduction arc. I know I've been a little inconsistent in the timing of my output lately, but I want to assure my readers, there will be more soon enough.

With the season hiatus now upon us (Boo...hiss...) the output might be a little inconsistent. I don't want to advance the main plot TOO far, because I know I'll just give myself headaches when the new episodes come out. However, I do have a few ideas for side-plots that I'll be working on. After all, there are still Ranger keys to find, and I'm sure Orion's going to take a while to get used to his new team...not to mention a certain Privateer may just be heading back into the mix!

Thanks for your support and your reviews. Hope you enjoyed it.


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